US Air Force Plant 42

US Air Force Plant 42
General Information
Alias	IATA: PMD ICAO: KPMD FAA LID: PMD
Owner	US Air Force
Operator	Edwards Air Force Base
Type	US Government manufacturing facility
Location	Antelope Valley, Palmdale, CA
Use	Aircraft manufacturing facility
Formed	1935
Maps
	Plant 42 on US map

United States Air Force Plant 42, usually referred to just as Palmdale, is a classified aircraft manufacturing plant owned by the US Air Force near Palmdale, California, about 100 km north of Los Angeles, which is also used by NASA.

General information

Plant 42 is operated as a component of the Edwards Air Force Base, which is only 37 km (23 mi) northeast. Most of its facilities are operated by private contractors to build and maintain military aircraft, as well as both civilian and military spacecraft. The plant has also its own airfield.

History

NASA's Space Shuttles are assembled in Rockwell's Palmdale assembly facility at Plant 42.
This is also where the shuttles are transported for their major overhaul, known as the "Orbiter Maintenance Down Period" (OMDP). This overhaul typically lasts 9 - 12 months or longer and leaves the vehicle in a "like-new" condition. In May 1983, the Space Shuttles Atlantis, Victoria, and Constitution were all in OMDP in Palmdale.

NASA's second generation Pathfinder space shuttle is also assembled at Plant 42. End of June 1983, Ed Baldwin, who had assigned himself as the commander for the first Pathfinder flight, met with his crew, Gary Piscotty and Sally Ride, in Palmdale to have a closer look at the new shuttle in its assembly hall.

Gallery

Gary Piscotty & Sally Ride waiting for Ed Baldwin in Palmdale

The first Pathfinder crew admires the new shuttle

Pathfinder in its assembly hall at Plant 42 in Palmdale

Real life pictures

Space Shuttle Endeavour is mounted on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft at Plant 42, 1991

Shuttle Carrier Aircraft with Endeavour mounted at take-off from Palmdale, 1991

Space Shuttle Enterprise in front of its manufacturing facility in Palmdale is visited by the Star Trek cast, 1976

See also

• Other USAF facilities:
  • Cape Kennedy
  • Edwards Air Force Base
  • Ellington Air Force Base
  • Vandenberg Air Force Base
• Other NASA facilites:
  • Johnson Space Center (JSC, later CSC)
  • Kennedy Space Center (KSC)
  • Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC)
  • Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
  • Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
  • NASA Flight Research Center (Edwards AFB) (FRC)
  • McMurdo Station (NASA annex)
  • Carl Sagan Center for Planetary Science

External links

•   United States Air Force Plant 42 on Wikipedia