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NASA currently uses crawler-transporter 2 to transport the Space Launch System with the Orion spacecraft atop it from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B for the Artemis missions. Early in 2016, NASA finished upgrading crawler-transporter 2 (CT-2) to a "Super Crawler" for use in the Artemis program. [10]
The Mobile Launcher Platform-1 on top of a crawler-transporter. A mobile launcher platform (MLP), also known as mobile launch platform, is a structure used to support a large multistage space vehicle which is assembled (stacked) vertically in an integration facility (e.g. the Vehicle Assembly Building) and then transported by a crawler-transporter (CT) to a launch pad.
The Vehicle Assembly Building (originally the Vertical Assembly Building), or VAB, is a large building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, designed to assemble large pre-manufactured space vehicle components, such as the massive Saturn V, the Space Shuttle and the Space Launch System, and stack them vertically onto one of three mobile launcher platforms used by NASA.
The Crawlerway was originally designed to support the weight of the Saturn V rocket and its payload, plus the Launch Umbilical Tower and mobile launcher platform, atop a crawler-transporter during the Apollo program. It was also used from 1981 to 2011 to transport the lighter Space Shuttles to their launch pads.
In this January 1966 image (restored today from a faded 4"x5" NASA transparency) these structures are brand new, and launch tower #1 is being moved by a crawler transporter to the VAB for erection of a "dummy" Saturn V facilities test vehicle, which will be rolled out to the pad later in the year, but not launched.
When the stack integration was completed, the Mobile Launcher was moved atop one of two crawler-transporters, or Missile Crawler Transporter Facilities, 3–4 miles (4.8–6.4 km) to its pad at a speed of 1 mile per hour (1.6 km/h). Each crawler weighed 6,000,000 pounds (2,720 t) and was capable of keeping the space vehicle and its launcher ...
Space Shuttle Discovery is carried by a Crawler-transporter, a launch tower is visible in the background. A service structure is a steel framework or tower that is built on a rocket launch pad to facilitate assembly and servicing. An umbilical tower also usually includes an elevator which allows maintenance and crew access. Immediately before ...
May 6, 2020 – Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is the site of NASA's return to the Moon and is now ready for Artemis 1—an uncrewed mission around the Moon and back. Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) has completed modifications and upgrades to the launch pad for the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft ...