this is nasa's largest and heaviest
rocket the 16 million pound space launch
system and mobile launcher
and while it looks like it's not moving
it's actually being transported to the
launch pad
it's just moving incredibly slow at just
one mile an hour
to get it to the launch destination nasa
uses this
the 144 million dollar nasa crawler
transporter
large enough to almost fit a
professional baseball infield on top
it's the largest self-powered vehicle on
the planet
and it's a key component to the artemis
program
fire
nasa's most ambitious mission yet
every long and complex journey into
space starts with this slow four mile
journey to the launch pad it's the first
time that we will be carrying the full
mobile launcher and the vehicle stack
out to the launch pad it's an integrated
test to check out all the systems so
it's very important and we're all
working very diligently to make sure
that it goes well
the crawler transporter is so massive it
takes a crew of 25 to 30 trained
engineers and technicians to operate it
you have a driver and a backup driver
engineering responsibilities in the
control room you've got
gel operator which is our jacking
equalizing leveling system that keeps
our load level then you've also got
technicians in the engine room you've
got technicians in the pump room
you've got technicians roving around the
catwalk keeping an eye on all the
hydraulic systems as well as you've got
people walking on the ground all around
the crawler keeping an eye out they have
a better vantage point than the driver
so they're in constant communication
of how things look on the ground where
our trucks are pointed
drivers operate the crawler from one of
two driver cabs located on opposite
corners of the vehicle
instead of reversing the driver walks to
the opposite cab to continue to steer
the vehicle this button is what we use
to
acknowledge that our cab is in control
the lead engineer in the control room
will actually go
assign a cab control and then the driver
whoever's in the cab will acknowledge
the command
from this button these three will let
you choose your steering modes most of
the time we're operating in great circle
which means the front crab is
controlling all four trucks and the
crawler will actually turn in a big
circle with the steering mode in the
center it'd be one thing if the four
mile journey was a straight line
but it's actually curved
and turning the crawler is one of the
biggest challenges the crawler can only
steer up to six degrees
so we've divided the steering wheel into
one degree increments and so we can have
a visual representation of how much
we're steering driving on curves
involves a lot more anticipation you
have to get your turn in early you put
your turn in and then you have to wait a
little bit before you actually see the
trucks react the crew is responsible for
transporting billions of dollars worth
of research and development so every
crew member must have a full
understanding of the crawler's systems
and its 70 000 individual components
did you see that ready to see the wear
here it's the same on the outside see
it's not wearing down here but
to become certified to drive it depends
person to person but usually it's
somewhere around a year and a half to
two years
while many different rockets have sat on
the crawlers over the years the crawlers
themselves have remained the same the
two crawler transporters we have in our
fleet have transported every single
launch vehicle from this vehicle
assembly building out to pad complex 39a
or b since
1965. the marion power shovel company
built the crawlers in the 1960s by
adapting its mining equipment and used
two locomotive engines to carry up to 12
million pounds and with the extensive
maintenance done over all these decades
we've kept this thing running
in some cases as good as it was new
in the past decade the crew has adapted
one crawler transporter to increase its
carrying capacity for the sls these are
called our traction roller assemblies
this is what supports the entire weight
of the crawler these trucks will
constantly spin all around this
and these will support everything
including we put the rocket on top when
we started replacing these 88 roller
bearings we did them
in one truck at a time so that would be
22 at a time then we took it out for a
test run and that you know that would be
six months worth of work there in total
it took five years just to upgrade and
test all 88 bearings before the upgrade
they were originally designed to carry
12 million pounds
and now with all of our upgrades we can
carry at least 18 million pounds
inside the crawler the vital systems
that run the vehicle sit inside the
engine room so behind me here is our
alco engines they're 2750 horsepower
these engines are original to the
crawler i mean they've never been
replaced they're one of the few still
remaining things from the original nasa
program
this is our cummins uh ac generators
these provide ac power folder onboard
systems including our pump our motors
for our pumps
uh our fans are standing directly below
here to actually introduce clean air
clean cool air into the engine room for
the techs that are in here
today the crawler is making its way from
the crawl yard to the vehicle assembly
building where it will pick up the sls
and mobile launcher for the first time
if anything doesn't feel right or
anything doesn't look right or
something's not you know if something's
not right
stop bring the crawler to a stop
after a briefing the crew inspects every
inch of the crawler before they get the
all clear to start the engine
we check
all the different pins cotter pins
quarter socks out for the holds the
track together we check every single one
of them on every single belt just to
ensure that they are there
because we don't want to break a belt
on the way
with everything in working order the
journey to the vab is underway
engineers and technicians walking
alongside the crawler referred to as
walkers are responsible for flagging any
potential issues to the rest of the crew
i'm checking the gearcase pressures
it has to maintain
you know a certain pressure
in order to function properly otherwise
you'll get an overheat you're doing an
overall check of the whole crawler just
to make sure that everything is hockey
dory so we can get to where we're going
as the crawler nears the vab
the driver begins to bring it to a stop
we are slowing down our speed pot
bringing the crawler to what we call a
normal stop by just dialing back
slowing down gradually
giving all of our systems an
opportunity to adjust and just slowly
come down
it takes about 14 crew members to plug
its power cable into an outlet for sure
power we always like to keep our systems
running uh like a computer in your house
you don't shut it off every time you use
it it just goes to sleep so all of our
electronics are that way they go to
sleep and then we have certain types of
heaters that keep our engines kind of
lukewarm all the time so they're not
starting cold so that always needs to be
powered
these last steps ensure that the crawler
is set up for its ultimate task
receiving the sls and mobile launcher
this role to the launch pad will test
all the work the crawler team has put in
over the past decade the crawler
actually crawls or traverses underneath
the vehicle
in the mobile launcher once we're
positioned correctly underneath these
gel cylinders we jack up
lift up the whole vehicle off the the
mounts
with the rocket secured on top the
journey to the launch pad begins
the ground's not always flat so we have
this jacking and equalizing leveling
system that we use to maintain level
throughout the transport of the artemis
vehicle we have an automated system that
actually kind of keeps track of our
parameters when we're going up the slope
itself
we have one end of the vehicle
you know jacked all the way down the
other end is jacked all the way up so
we've got a range about you know five
feet
ahead of the crawler a truck sprays
about 30 thousand gallons of water onto
the rocky path
which the crawler pulverizes as it
inches towards its destination the rocks
that we roll on as we crush them it
creates dust
these motors below us here suck in a lot
of air to keep them cool while we're
rolling so that dust will get caught up
in those filters and they'll clog them
up so by by wetting all of the rock that
keeps the dust level down and then it
also changes the friction on the rocks
so it makes them easier for us to turn
it ultimately takes 10 hours and 28
minutes for the crawler to reach its
destination where it finally lowers the
sls onto the launch pad
the sls will remain at the pad for a two
day wet dress rehearsal where the team
will run through the countdown and other
procedures no matter the mission
every long and complex journey into
space starts with this slow four mile
journey to the launch pad it's not a
piece of flight hardware it doesn't get
all the
fancy press that the launch vehicle does
but
in the background we're the most
important piece of equipment
you