NASA Upgrades Giant Rocket-Carrying Vehicle

The crawler under construction in 1964. NASA

The crawler under construction in 1964.

NASA

A view of Crawler 1 in 1964. NASA

A view of Crawler 1 in 1964.

NASA

Delivering the Saturn V rocket with Apollo 10 to the launch pad in 1969. NASA

Delivering the Saturn V rocket with Apollo 10 to the launch pad in 1969.

NASA

Apollo 11, which sent the first humans to the moon in 1969, rolls out from the vehicle assembly building. NASA

Apollo 11, which sent the first humans to the moon in 1969, rolls out from the vehicle assembly building.

NASA

President Jimmy Carter learns about the crawler during a tour of Kennedy Space Center in 1978. NASA

President Jimmy Carter learns about the crawler during a tour of Kennedy Space Center in 1978.

NASA

Space Shuttle Columbia makes its way toward the launch pad for NASA's first ever shuttle launch in 1980. NASA

Space Shuttle Columbia makes its way toward the launch pad for NASA's first ever shuttle launch in 1980.

NASA

Space Shuttle Columbia's first launch. NASA

Space Shuttle Columbia's first launch.

NASA

Space Shuttle Discovery prepares for the second servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope in 1997. NASA

Space Shuttle Discovery prepares for the second servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope in 1997.

NASA

Space Shuttle Endeavour gets ready for launch on STS-67, which at the time was the longest shuttle mission to date at 16 days. NASA

Space Shuttle Endeavour gets ready for launch on STS-67, which at the time was the longest shuttle mission to date at 16 days.

NASA

Space Shuttle Atlantis before the last shuttle flight in 2011. Bill Ingalls/NASA

Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-135) is seen atop the Mobile Launch Platform (MLP) during its journey from High Bay 3 in the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39a for its final flight, Tuesday evening, May 31, 2011, at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The 3.4-mile trek, known as "rollout," will take about seven hours to complete. Atlantis will carry the Raffaello multipurpose logistics module to deliver supplies, logistics and spare parts to the International Space Station. The launch of STS-135 is targeted for July 8. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Bill Ingalls/NASA

The upgraded Crawler 2 goes on a test drive. Cory Huston/NASA

The upgraded Crawler 2 goes on a test drive.

Cory Huston/NASA

The upgraded Crawler 2 leaves the vehicle assembly building. Kim Shiflett/NASA

The upgraded Crawler 2 leaves the vehicle assembly building.

Kim Shiflett/NASA

For five decades a 6.3-million pound behemoth of a machine, like a baseball diamond perched atop tank treads, has moved NASA rockets from their hangars to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral. Now the two Crawler-Transporters, stalwart workhorses of the American space program, is getting its first major upgrade.

Maxing out at just a mile an hour, the crawlers hauled the iconic Saturn V used in the Apollo missions on the eight-hour trip from the vehicle assembly building. They carried Skylab, the first US space station. They moved every space shuttle on all 135 missions. Not bad for a machine that debuted the year after the Ford Mustang. “How many Mustangs do you see on the road today,” says John Giles, the deputy project manager for the crawlers. “They’ve all gone by the wayside.” But his crawler-transporters are still at work.

At least they will be—after some tinkering. They’ll get new, stronger steel, and new roller bearings, brakes, and gearboxes. NASA engineers will replace the hydraulic system that lifts and lowers the platform when the rockets get loaded on. By the time the work is done at the end of the year, the agency will have put $50 million into the machines.

But if the space program goes as planned, it’ll be worth it. NASA hopes to use its new Space Launch System to rocket crewed Orion spacecraft to space, maybe even to Mars. And the SLS is the most powerful rocket ever built. To carry it, the souped-up crawler will have to be able to handle 18 million pounds, 6 million more than before. And eventually other rocket launch groups, like United Launch Alliance, might also use the crawler system. “It’s not like what it used to be in the past,” says Mary Hanna, the crawler-transport system’s project manager. “We’re posturing to be a multiuse spaceport.”

One thing that probably won’t change much is the ride itself. It’s slow enough that at first it barely looks like it’s moving. But once it starts down the roadway—paved with rocks to withstand the weight—the crawler with a rocket on top still looks like an engineering marvel.