Turner Industries Installs Dynamic Demonstration Unit at NASA Assembly Facility

Turner Industries’ crane and rigging department offloaded and assembled a Dynamic Demonstration Unit (DDU) fabricated by Futuramic Tool and Engineering Company at NASA’s Michound Assembly Facility. The DDU is a tool used by NASA to simulate the size, weight and center of gravity of the Structural Test Articles (STAs) that make up the core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS), NASA’s mega rocket. The STAs consist of a liquid oxygen tank (LOX), an intertank (IT) and a liquid hydrogen tank (LH2). This mega rocket is intended to send astronauts on a journey to Mars in the 2030s.

The DDU was offloaded and assembled in its largest configuration, which required 12 individual crane lifts and one tandem lift using two 100-ton hydraulic cranes to set the unit on top of two large A-frames.