Bret Gist considers himself a 'yes' man.
When he's presented with a challenge, Gist prefers to say 'yes' and take the project head on.
So when he received a phone call two years ago asking if his company, G&G Steel, would be interested in building a 212-foot long, 230,000 pound, full-scale steel model rocket as part of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), Gist said 'yes.'
“Our local high school team in Russellville had recently won the rocketry team world championship. So I was very interested in G&G Steel making a model rocket after what happened in Russellville, Alabama,” Gist, G&G Steel's Vice President, said.
Two years after that phone call, several hundred guests, including Congressman Robert Aderholt, were on hand Thursday for the NASA SLS Core Stage Pathfinder Vehicle completion event at G&G Steel's Cordova location on the Warrior River.
The massive core stage pathfinder will be used to demonstrate core stage operations and transportation, including routes for testing, assembly and to the launch site at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
After Thursday's ceremony, the massive pathfinder vehicle was to be loaded onto a barge where it will be carried to NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, then to Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss., before heading to Florida.
Construction of the core stage pathfinder was a collaboration among G&G Steel, Radiance Technologies and Dynetics, Inc., of Huntsville. NASA awarded Radiance Technologies the pathfinder vehicle delivery order under the Engineering Solutions and Prototyping contract with Dynetics as the technical lead. G&G Steel performed the assembly of the pathfinder vehicle in component parts at its Russellville facility, where the smaller components were cut, prepared and formed. They were then transported to Cordova where final assembly was completed in preparation of transporting the pathfinder by barge.
“This is a full-scale model of the core stage of the SLS rocket,” Gist said. “This is NASA's new generation rocket. Basically, it's called Pathfinder because this testing is to supposedly find a path for the new rocket and determine whether they will have any problems in transporting the actual rocket once its constructed.”
The SLS is the latest technology that's part of NASA's deep space exploration that includes plans for a manned mission to Mars. SLS will use ground and launch facilities at Kennedy Space Center. More than 1,000 manufacturers and suppliers will be involved in the SLS project. The first planned voyage for the SLS is an uncrewed trip around the moon, according to Dynetics, Inc., CEO Dave King.
Aderholt said the time and expense of a test delivery run was justified because it will help avoid problems and allow for adjustments before the hardware is installed and delivery is made on the actual rocket.
“This is not an insignificant thing here today. We have a 212-foot mockup of the core stage of the Space Launch System that will be the world's biggest rocket,” Aderholt said. “In two weeks, this piece of hardware will be delivered to New Orleans, then to Stennis and on to Kennedy.
“Congratulations to all of the workers here at G&G Steel. It's a big day not only for Alabama but for America and our space program. What will be on this rocket is our most precious cargo in the United States—our American astronauts. Safety is our most important criteria moving forward,” he added.
The massive steel structure was loaded by two overhead cranes and placed on a barge. Gist described the process of loading the pathfinder as slow and methodical because it has to be tilted just to clear the building and be placed onto the barge.
“We fabricated the entire pathfinder vehicle. It was built from scratch. It's a steel model but physically the same size and weight of what it actually will be,” Gist said. “These guys you see here today wearing the G&G shirts did the hard work on this project. They're the ones who made this happen,” Gist added.
Gist said G&G Steel has done some work for NASA prior to the Space Launch System project. He hopes the company's involvement with this important testing will open more doors for G&G to collaborate with NASA.
“Two years ago we did some work for NASA directly. It involved more testing equipment—nothing that was flying hardware-related,” Gist said. “We did assemble a couple pieces here that were actually bolted to flight hardware and in our world that's a big deal because we think of NASA hardware as very critical. A lot of people inspect it. There's more manpower inspecting it than building it,” he added.
