Austin designed, engineered and constructed this automated warehouse at Kennedy Space Center for storage of flight hardware and ground-support equipment used in the NASA space shuttle program. Lockheed’s Space Operations Company, NASA’s prime contractor for the ground support of the program, performs its logistics functions in this 325,000 SF fully temperature and humidity controlled warehouse.

The facility stores nearly 200,000 different items ranging from orbiter fuel cells to spare windows and includes an automated inventory system that will interface with NASA’s Shuttle Inventory Management System (SIMS). Four roboticized forklift trucks, programmable by a computer terminal, will locate and retrieve specific items from storage. The system also uses automatic conveyors and automated three-story forklifts.