Preparing for launch Options

[toddbronco2]

The view from the High Bay viewing gallery this morning.

[Airbag]

Some really detailed photos there; thanks for the heads up. I'm just drooling over those close ups!

Interesting to note that that the two rockets in each pair are not quite pointed in the same direction; I would hazard a guess that the ones pointing slightly more "outward" are the ones used at the end (to minimize the blast effects on any surface dust).

And the wheels are covered in Mylar (or something similar to that) - I can't imagine they will be left like that; surely that must be to keep them as clean as possible until right before final packing up? If the covering is left on then it is bound to be shredded through use on Mars which would be very bad to then have lots of little pieces of insulation floating around.

Airbag

[djellison]

I would hazard a guess that the ones pointing slightly more "outward" are the ones used at the end (to minimize the blast effects on any surface dust).

Exactly that - the proj. animation reflects that. What it doesn't show is the jolt the system gets transitioning from all 8 to just the final four in prep for the skycrane maneuver.

And, I think the mylar's coming off....probably just contamination control and esd protection.