Towers That Protect the Power

Talk about a major target for lightning, NASA has become proactive and so — on Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, a crane completes construction of one of the towers in the new lightning protection system for the Constellation Program. Image Credit: NASA/Troy Cryder

Other towers are being constructed at left and behind the service structures on the pad. Each of the three new lightning towers will be 500 feet tall with an additional 100-foot fiberglass mast atop supporting a wire catenary system. This improved lightning protection system allows for the taller height of the Ares I rocket compared to the space shuttle. Pad 39B will be the site of the first Ares vehicle launch, including the Ares I-X test flight that is targeted for July 2009.