John Williams explains how the Saturn V rocket was fueled with Umbilical Arms on the larger launch tower. He shows Arm #8, which fueled the rocket up until launch. This piece of history is located at the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama
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Space Intelligence shares fun facts and excitement about space history, current space missions and future space exploration. John Williams is an avid fan and young space historian. His videos are designed to educate others to learn more about space history and technology.

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Link: Apollo Maniacs
Launch Umbilical Tower(LUT)
69-HC-622 May 20, 1969 Apollo 11 is transported up the incline to pad 39-A
This is "international orange" painted iron structure mounted on the Launcher Base to provide fuel, pneumatic, electricity, water, communications etc to vehicle. The height is 380 ft (about 115.8 m) from Launcher Base, and it is 18 floors in total. The first and second floors have a height of 30 ft (about 9.1 m), the others each have a height of 20 ft (about 6.1 m), and each floor is called the height (ft) from the top of the Launcher Base. For example, the second floor is "Level 30", the third floor is "Level 60", and the top 18th floor is called "Level 360". A hammerhead crane, which can rotate 360 degrees and lift a weight of 10 to 25 tons, is installed on the roof at Level 380. Two high-speed elevators, which go up and down at 600 ft (183 m) per minute, connect floor A of the Launcher Base to Level 340 of the LUT.

LC-39 EGRESS SYSTEMEach floor was equipped with foldable extension platforms that provides foothold for maintenance. In addition, a total of 60 TV cameras were installed to monitor vehicle and equipment at launch. The Slide wire escape system, which astronauts use for emergency escape at launch, was attached to the "Level 320" (443 ft from the ground). From here they can take a small cab and slide down to a bunker 2200 ft (670 m) away.
KSC-70PC-642 November 9, 1970 top of Apollo 14 stack during rollout research: J.L. Pickering
In an emergency such as a fire, astronauts and engineers take two high-speed elevators to evacuate LUT work floor. After getting off the elevator, take a metal chute (Escape tube) from Level A to avoid blast, and retreat to a heat-resistant room (Blast room) provided inside the hard stand of the pad. Blast room has a sturdy metal door like a bank safe and can withstand explosion of the entire rocket. The people inside can stay alive for at least 24 hours until the rescue team digs out and rescues them. Alternatively, take the elevator B down to below Pad and get on the armored vehicle and leave Pad.

NASA
The connections between the ground and the towering space vehicle posed a tricky problem. An umbilical tower, even higher than the vehicle itself, was required to support an array of swingarms that at various levels would carry the cables and the pneumatic, fueling, and venting lines to the rocket stages and to the spacecraft. The swingarms had to be in place during final countdown, but in the last moments they had to be turned out of the way to permit the rocket to rise. There was always the possibility, however, of some trouble after the swingarms had been disconnected. For instance, the holddown mechanism would release the rocket only after all five engines of the first stage produced full power. lf this condition was not attained within a few seconds, all engines would shut down. In such a situation, unless special provisions were made for reattachment of some swingarms, Launch Control would be unable to "safe" the vehicle and remove the flight crew from its precarious perch atop a potential bomb.

The connections between the ground and the towering space vehicle posed a tricky problem. An umbilical tower, even higher than the vehicle itself, was required to support an array of swingarms that at various levels would carry the cables and the pneumatic, fueling, and venting lines to the rocket stages and to the spacecraft. The swingarms had to be in place during final countdown, but in the last moments they had to be turned out of the way to permit the rocket to rise. There was always the possibility, however, of some trouble after the swingarms had been disconnected. For instance, the holddown mechanism would release the rocket only after all five engines of the first stage produced full power. lf this condition was not attained within a few seconds, all engines would shut down. In such a situation, unless special provisions were made for reattachment of some swingarms, Launch Control would be unable to "safe" the vehicle and remove the flight crew from its precarious perch atop a potential bomb.

These considerations led to the establishment, at Marshall, of a special Swingarm Test Facility, where detachment and reconnection of various arms was tested under brutally realistic conditions.

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