Missile Silo Sliding Door

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Missile silo sliding door.

In the event of a launch the door would be blown off the silo by sliding horizontally along rails which are still in place. A missile launch facility also known as an underground missile silo launch facility or nuclear silo is a vertical cylindrical structure constructed underground for the storage and launching of intercontinental ballistic missiles. They are usually connected physically and or electronically to a missile launch control center. The access hatch for crews to service the missile is still there and the whole site is surrounded by the original eight foot security fence.

Us land based missile silos have a reinforced concrete door that slides over the silo. The launcher closure door weighs approximately 110 tons and its design is to protect the minutman missile inside the launch facility from an enemy nuclear blast. The electronic surveillance system is also still in place. It s a piece of history as the site is one of 18 missile silos built by the american government in tucson.

The missile silo is leftover from the beginning of the cold war when the u s. This is a slightly longer version of the door closing using additional footage shot by david soll from the surface and greg macdonald from inside the silo. It is a steel plate with a layer of concrete on top of it. For nearly thirty.

The launcher closure door is the hexagon shaped concrete cap that seals off the minuteman missile inside its launch tube at the launch facility. The structures typically have the missile some distance below ground protected by a large blast door on top. The launcher closure door lcd as it is officially called has a mass of 110 tons. The silo blast doors are at the bottom of a shaft that leads to the launch control center.

For routine maintenance where the silo door needs to be opened for access to the missile the door is cranked slowly along the rails via hydraulic motors to open the 90 ton door. The lcd is moved by a ballistic gas generator that uses highly pressurized gas to open the door. Apart from offering its new owner a 6 000 pound blast doors the bunker is also protected. Began developing the atlas missile system which placed the missiles in bases throughout the country.