The Shuttle Crawler Transporter
Explanation:
NASA's Crawler-Transporters are the largest tracked vehicles in existence.
Although the
crawlers pack over 5,000
horsepower, their top speed is less than two
kilometers per hour when fully loaded.
Eleven people are needed to drive a single crawler.
Diesel
fuel
mileage is about 350
liters per kilometer
(less than 0.007 miles per gallon).
The
crawler's
function is to move NASA's
space shuttles -- complete with
launch platforms -- from the
Assembly Building to the
Launch Pad at
Kennedy Space Center in
Florida,
USA.
Two of these massive machines have operated since the
Apollo
era and have now crawled over 4,000 kilometers,
all the while keeping their contents perfectly upright.
In
this picture a crawler transports
the shuttle Columbia
to the pad prior to its March 1st launch
on the latest
Hubble Space Telelescope
Servicing Mission.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
