The 50-Year-Old Giant Crawler Transporter from NASA Will Transport the SLS Rocket and Orion Spacecraft to the Launch Pad Next Week.
The CT-2 Crawler Transporter in motion. (Video: NASA)
On March 11, NASA’s Crawler Transporter (CT-2) began its slow crawl towards the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to pick up the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft. This duo is set to launch to the Moon this summer as part of the Artemis 1 mission, the first uncrewed mission of the Artemis program.
This transport operation is preparing for the schedule on March 17, when the crawler will carry the rocket over a distance of 6.4 kilometers to launch pad 39B.
CT-2 is one of two crawler transporters used to transport heavy objects like rockets and spacecraft.
The CT-2 is one of NASA’s two crawler transporters, primarily tasked with transporting heavy objects such as rockets and spacecraft. This massive vehicle is the size of a football field and weighs nearly 3,000 tons. According to NASA, the CT-2 moves at a maximum speed of 1.6 km/h when fully loaded and 3.2 km/h when empty. Despite being over 50 years old and having traveled a total of 3,758 kilometers, NASA hopes the vehicle can operate for many more years.
The current job of the crawler is to pick up the SLS and Orion from the VAB and transport them to the launch pad next week. This launch system is scheduled to take off for the Artemis 1 mission as early as May. During this uncrewed mission, the Orion spacecraft will orbit the Moon. The mission will test both the spacecraft and the SLS rocket to see if the duo can safely carry humans into space.
Following Artemis 1, the Artemis 2 mission, planned for launch in 2024, will carry astronauts around the Moon and back to Earth. The Artemis 3 mission in 2025 will see astronauts land on the Moon’s surface for the first time since 1972.
