NASA’s rocket launch site, known as “Launch Complex 39”, is located on Merritt Island in Florida. One thing you may see there is what is known as a Mobile Launcher Platform (MLP). This is a 2-story structure used by NASA to support the Space Shuttle stack during its transportation from the vehicle assembly building to Complex 39. It also serves as the vehicles launch platform.
According to Wikipedia, the MLP was designed as part of NASA’s strategy for vertical assembly and transport of space vehicles. That way, they can avoid the additional step of lifting and craning a horizontally-assembled vehicle onto the launch pad (as the engineers of the Soviet space program chose to do).
In order to accomplish this task, NASA had to make the Mobile Launcher Platform in massive proportions. Each MLP weighs 8.23 million points unloaded (about 11 million pounds with an unfueled Shuttle aboard). It measures 160 feet by 135 feet and is 25 feet high. That’s pretty big! Of course, it would have to be in order to handle the pressure of the start of the Shuttle’s mission.
As ministry leaders and people helpers, we are on a mission. God has called us to perform tasks and meet the needs of others. Each day we wake up to the job at hand until the day ends and we lay our heads back on our pillows for sleep.
What gets you up each morning? What keeps you motivated? It’s the call of God. It’s His love that compels you, right? Maybe this unconditional love (this calling) is like a launch pad – a massive platform from which we begin each day and pursue the mission to which we are called. It’s a launch pad that is capable of handling the pressure of the mission.
So what’s your morning routine? How do you renew your awareness of God’s love and calling on your life?
photo credit - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Launch_Platform
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