Gantry (rocketry)

In rocketry, a gantry is a service tower, a multistory frame which encloses a rocket at its launch pad, containing elevators and staircases that enable technicians to inspect, maintain, and adjust all parts of the vehicle, and for cabling and hoses to be attached to it and removed. If the rocket is a manned spacecraft, sometimes the crew also enters by way of the gantry. The gantry often rolls away or tilts away at or just before launch. Gantries in the West are painted red and white for aircraft safety; Soviet or Russian gantries are painted military colors.