NASA GANTRY INSPECTION

This project entailed the use of rope access to perform a hands-on inspection of this 400-foot by 230-foot by 265-foot A-frame gantry structure located at the NASA Langley Research Center in Virginia.

The structure was built in 1963 to facilitate the training of Apollo astronauts.  Originally named the Lunar Landing Research Facility, it was used to support a suspension system that imitated the moon’s gravitational environment by supporting 5/6 of the total weight of the lunar module simulator so that the practicing astronauts felt as if they were in a lighter gravitational environment (1/6 of the Earth’s gravity).

More recently, the center has been used to perform aircraft crash testing and is currently being used to support the Constellation Program which is working to send astronauts to the international space station, back to the moon and beyond.