Crawler-Transporter at Kennedy Space Center
Channel: Angela Brett
Date: 23/02/2011

This is the crawler transporter used to transport the space shuttle from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad, as I saw it during a guided tour on 31 December 2010. I figured it was about time I uploaded it, what with STS-133 launching tomorrow. Here is a transcript of what our tour guide said, starting a few minutes before this video was taken:

After shuttle assembly is complete, the mobile launcher platform with the space shuttle mounted on top in a vertical position has to be transported as a single unit from the Vehicle Assembly Building out to one of the two launch pads. Here is the assignment: pick up a structure that weights well over 11 million pounds [note from later in the commentary: 9 million pounds of mobile launch platform plus 3 million pounds of shuttle] and stands 200 feet tall and smoothly transport it either 3.4 miles out to pad A, or 4.2 miles out to pad B while keeping the mobile platform level and the shuttle vertical.

The crawler itself weighs about 6 million pounds, it's comprised of four trucks, 8 tracks, each has 57 cleats each weighing a ton, carries 9 million pounds of mobile launch platform plus 3 million pounds of shuttle. It has to dock within  an inch of its landing spot.

Assembled at Kennedy Space Center in 1965, the crawler transporters were originally designed and built to transport the Apollo Saturn V from the Vehicle Assembly Building out to the launch pads. Now they carry the shuttles. They have been serving NASA well for more than four decades. Each crawler transporter is approximately 131 feet long, 114 feet wide. It covers an area about the size of a baseball diamond. Each vehicle consists of four double-tracked crawlers, so there's eight tracks altogether in each crawler transporter, 57 cleats in each track. The general arrangement of a crawler transporter resembles that of a diesel electric locomotive. Each crawler transporter has two 2750 horsepower diesel engines that drive four  1000 kW direct current generators, which provides power to sixteen traction motors. Each crawler-transporter gets approximately 35 to 42 feet to the gallon, can take up to 150 gallons to go 1 mile. Various methods of transportation were considered by NASA during the planning for Apollo, including a barge and canal system and a rail system, but most of NASA's potential concepts proved impractical, or too expensive for moving such a tremendous load. After much study it was decided that a cross-land tracked vehicle or transporter would be the obvious choice. The idea was to use a large tracked machine like those used in strip mining as the method of transportation.

You can learn more about the crawler-transporter here: http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/facilities/crawler.html

and don't forget to watch the launch on NASA TV! http://nasa.gov/ntv