KSC Release No. FS-2000-04-28-KSC
Revised April 2000

Transporters of several types are used throughout the Kennedy Space Center’s (KSC) Launch Complex 39 Area to move orbiters, solid rocket motors, payloads and the Space Shuttles. The transporters first grew out of a need to move Project Apollo flight hardware and supporting structures, and later, the various elements supporting Space Shuttle launches. The oldest type currently still in use at KSC is the crawler transporter (photo below); the newest is the payload canister transporter. Each serves a unique purpose.

In 1961, President Kennedy set a national goal of making a manned landing on the moon before the end of the decade. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was assigned the responsibility of accomplishing this awesome feat. At the time, neither the huge and extremely sophisticated flight hardware nor the supporting launch facilities existed.

While other NASA facilities tackled the job of designing and developing the Saturn V launch vehicle and the Apollo spacecraft for transporting three men to the moon, Kennedy Space Center began the design of the launch complex.

Heading the team at KSC was Dr. Kurt H. Debus, KSC director and rocketry pioneer with launch experience dating from the 1930s.

Because of the size and complications of handling the huge Saturn V rocket and the adverse environmental factors of wind, rain, highly corrosive salt air, electrical storms, and hurricanes that exist at KSC, Dr. Debus’ team departed from the conventional methods of assembly and checkout of the launch vehicles at the launch pad. He decided that the Saturn V would be assembled and checked out in a Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and then transported to the launch pad on a mobile launch pad and tower.

Conveyance of the mobile launcher and Saturn V to the pad posed no small problem in the 1960s. The rocket and launcher would weigh 12 million pounds, and the distance would be 3.5 miles to Pad A and more than 4 miles to Pad B. In addition, a portable service tower would be required to be transported to the launch pads to service the Saturn V.

Three concepts of transporting the vehicle and launcher were proposed: a barge and canal system, a rail system, and a land transporter. The task of selecting one of these three systems and then transforming a concept into reality fell to D.D. Buchanan, chief of the launcher systems and umbilical tower design section.

After a year of study, in 1962 the cross-land tracked vehicle, or crawler transporter, was determined to be the most feasible conveyance.

Early concepts showed the transporter integral with the mobile launcher, but exposure to launch damage and possible long repair periods influenced the selection of a transporter that would be completely self-powered and separate from the structures. The transporter would be the largest land vehicle ever constructed, would weigh six million pounds, and would be capable of transporting the mobile launcher with an assembled Saturn V or the mobile service structure.

In July 1962, NASA approved the crawler transporter concept, and in March 1963, a contract was awarded to Marion Power and Shovel Co., Marion, Ohio, for the construction of two transporters.

Of credit to the individuals who designed the KSC crawler transporters is the fact they did not embark on exotic schemes that might have taken years to develop and would have cost many times more. Instead, they used existing and proven concepts that were modified and ingeniously applied to the Apollo program requirements.

Construction of the transporters as separate and independent of the mobile launch platform structures proved both prudent and visionary in light of future requirements of the transporters. Although modifications were necessary to support Shuttle operations, the transporters have truly become the workhorses of the Complex 39 area. They will continue to function well into the 21st century using the same basic design initiated in 1962.

One of KSC two crawler transporters (CT) 
transports the Mobile Launcher Platform, 
with the assembled Space Shuttle aboard, 
between the refurbishment area, the VAB, 
and Complex 39 Launch Pads A and B. 
Normally, the CT lifts the mobile launcher 
from its parking site pedestals at the 
refurbishment area, carries it into the VAB, 
and lowers it onto the pedestals in the 
high bay.

When the Shuttle orbiter has been mated to the external tank and solid rocket boosters, the CT lifts the mobile launcher with the Shuttle, and carries it to the launch pad using a laser guidance system on the crawler and a leveling system. Once at the pad, the CT lowers the Shuttle-topped mobile launcher onto the pad pedestals. The CT then moves to a park site away from the pad to avoid possible damage from launch. After the Shuttle is launched, the CT lifts the mobile launcher from the pad and returns it to the parking location for refurbishment.

AC Power System
DC Power System
Auxiliary Power System
Hydraulic System
Pneumatic System
Integrated Monitor and Control System
Jacking, Equalizing and Leveling System
Steering System
Engine Monitor System
DC Propel System
Fire Detection, Alarm and Protection System Lubrication System
Instrumentation System