Mate-Demate Device
A Mate-Demate Device (MDD) is a specialized crane designed to lift a Space Shuttle orbiter onto and off the back of a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Four Mate-Demate Devices were built.
The first MDD was located at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base, California 34°57′31″N 117°53′02″W / 34.958559°N 117.883818°W. Construction of the MDD was completed in late 1976. It was first used during mate-demate operations with the prototype Space Shuttle Enterprise during the five Approach and Landing Tests (ALT) in 1977. It was then used for post-landing and Shuttle Carrier Aircraft mating operations at NASA Armstrong following shuttle orbital missions that landed at Edwards. Fifty-four of the 135 shuttle missions landed at Edwards between STS-1 in 1981 through STS-128 in 2009. All but one (STS-3) of these flights landed at Kennedy Space Center instead. This MDD was used to hoist a Space Shuttle orbiter onto a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft for the flight back to Florida. The MDD was dismantled in 2014 following the retirement of Space Shuttle.
The second MDD was located at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida 28°36′02″N 80°40′45″W / 28.600666°N 80.679262°W. Its primary use was unloading the orbiter after its cross-country flight from Edwards.
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