NASA’s Solid Rocket Booster Refurbishment Facility Dragonfly Water Treatment Systems Cape Canaveral, Florida

A key feature of the Space Shuttle Program is its ability to be reusable.  The Shuttle itself returns to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) after every mission and is processed in its unique special hangar in the Orbiter Processing Facility.  Two very important and large components of the system are the Solid Rocket Boosters.  These boosters, at almost 120 ft in length, provide the power necessary to give the Shuttle the initial push to escape the earth’s gravity. Together with the Shuttle’s main engines, they comprise the propulsion system for the Shuttle system.

Once the Boosters have done their job in a little more than 2 minutes, they are jettisoned. With the help of giant parachutes, they return to the ocean. Then the boosters are picked up and returned to their specialized facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida. The boosters are cleaned and disassembled there, and shipped back to Utah for reprocessing and use in future missions.

During the refurbishment phase, the retrieved boosters are cleaned and washed, much like a large car wash. Dirt and residual contaminants are collected together with water that is used and stored in large holding tanks.  AJT & Associates, Inc. (AJT) was hired to design a water treatment system that would allow for the reuse of the water for these purposes.

AJT utilized a technology that was in its infancy. Ozone for wastewater treatment was being used in few applications. The water was filtered to remove larger size dirt particles, then processed through a contact column that would oxidize the contaminants as well as destroy any microorganisms present in the water.  The system allowed for the water to be stored and reused in the process again.

The project is a huge success. It has allowed the program to operate in areas of extreme environmental importance without disposing the water used for cleaning the boosters.