Crawler-Transporter
The Crawler-Transporters, formally recognized as the Missile Crawler Transporter Facilities, is a pair of trailed vehicles used to move spacecraft from NASA’s (VAB) Vehicle Assembly Building at the Crawlerway to Launch Complex 39.
They were initially used to bring the Saturn V and Saturn IB rockets during the Apollo, Apollo–Soyuz, and Skylab programs. They were then used to move Space Shuttles from 1981 to 2011.
The NASA crawler-transporters have carried the load of taking rockets and spacecraft to the launchpad for longer than fifty years at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
They are the size of a baseball infield and powered by a locomotive and huge electrical power generator engines. Also, the crawler-transporters stand ready to keep up the next generation of launch vehicles to lift astronauts into space.
The crawlers are unprecedented in the world, having been built in 1965 to move, as mentioned above, the heavy Saturn V from Kennedy’s Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Complex 39.
Crawler-Transporter 2
After the lunar landing and Skylab programs stopped, the crawlers continued their work, taking space shuttles to their launch pads for about 30 years.
The crawlers are envisioned as essential parts of future launch operations at Kennedy. And the Crawler-Transporter 2 will be integral to the Artemis program.
The crawler-transporters transfer rockets on the Mobile launcher platforms used by NASA, and after each launch, they return to the pad to take the platform back to the Vehicle Assembly Building.
The two huge crawler-transporters were built and designed by Marion Power Shovel Company using parts designed and built by Rockwell International at the cost of each US$14 million.
In its construction, the crawler-transporter became the biggest self-powered land vehicle in the world. While other vehicles such as bucket-wheel excavators like Bagger 293, dragline excavators like Big Muskie, and power shovels like The Captain are significantly larger, they are powered by external sources.
NASA Crawler Facts
Weight: About 6.6 million pounds or the total weight of around 15 Statues of Liberty or 1,000 pickup trucks.
Height: Varies from about 20 feet to 26 feet, based on the jacking, equalization, and leveling cylinders.
Load Capacity: Capable of transporting 18 million pounds or the total weight of more than 20 fully loaded 777 airplanes.
March 1963: Fabrication began on the crawler-transporters in Ohio.
Jan. 23, 1965: The crawler moved under its own power for the first time.
Aug. 26, 1967: The first Saturn V rocket was moved to the launchpad for the uncrewed Apollo 4 mission.
May 1, 1979: A crawler moved the space shuttle Enterprise, with an external tank and two inert solid rocket boosters, to LaunchPad A for a fit check.
Nov. 16, 2011: The NASA Crawler Moved Space Launch System’s (SLS) mobile launcher from the parking place beside the (VAB), or the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B.
How long does it take the crawler to get to the launchpad?
The journey from the VAB to the launch pad takes approximately six hours. Furthermore, over the years, the crawler transporters have made it well over 300 times, bringing everything from the Saturn V rocket and capsule for the 1967 Apollo 4 mission to the historic space shuttle Atlantis for the last shuttle mission (STS-135) in 2011.
How Fast is The NASA Crawler?
The maximum speed for the crawler is 1.6km or one mile per hour loaded, about 3.2 km or 2 miles per hour unloaded. LaunchPad to VAB trip time with the Mobile Launch Platform is about 5 hours. The crawler burns 568 liters or 150 gallons of diesel oil per mile.
That’s it. Thanks for reading this short article about NASA’s Crawlers. If you want to know more about Saturn V rocket, then head over to this article called; Why Did The Saturn V Have Fins?
To learn more about the first landing on the moon, check out our article, First Apollo Mission to Land on the Moon: A Historic Milestone.