Crawlerway
Encyclopedia
The Crawlerway is a 100 feet (30.5 m) wide double pathway at the Kennedy Space Center
in Florida
. It runs between the Vehicle Assembly Building
and the two launch pads at Launch Complex 39. It has a length of 3.5 miles (5.6 km) to Pad 39A and 4.2 miles (6.8 km) to Pad 39B. A seven-foot bed of stones lies beneath a layer of asphalt
and a surface made of Alabama river rock
s.
The Crawlerway was designed to support the weight of a Saturn V
rocket and payload, plus its Launch Umbilical Tower and Mobile Launch Platform, atop a Crawler-transporter
during the Apollo Program
. It was used from 1981–2011 to transport the lighter Space Shuttle
s to their launch pads.
Construction of the Crawlerway connected Merritt Island with the mainland, forming a peninsula. The main vehicle access road to and from the launch pads, the Saturn Causeway, runs alongside the crawlerway.
Kennedy Space Center
The John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA installation that has been the launch site for every United States human space flight since 1968. Although such flights are currently on hiatus, KSC continues to manage and operate unmanned rocket launch facilities for America's civilian space program...
in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. It runs between the Vehicle Assembly Building
Vehicle Assembly Building
The Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center was used to assemble and house American manned launch vehicles from 1968-2011. It is the fourth largest building in the world by volume...
and the two launch pads at Launch Complex 39. It has a length of 3.5 miles (5.6 km) to Pad 39A and 4.2 miles (6.8 km) to Pad 39B. A seven-foot bed of stones lies beneath a layer of asphalt
Asphalt
Asphalt or , also known as bitumen, is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits, it is a substance classed as a pitch...
and a surface made of Alabama river rock
Rock (geology)
In geology, rock or stone is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic...
s.
The Crawlerway was designed to support the weight of a Saturn V
Saturn V
The Saturn V was an American human-rated expendable rocket used by NASA's Apollo and Skylab programs from 1967 until 1973. A multistage liquid-fueled launch vehicle, NASA launched 13 Saturn Vs from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida with no loss of crew or payload...
rocket and payload, plus its Launch Umbilical Tower and Mobile Launch Platform, atop a Crawler-transporter
Crawler-Transporter
The crawler-transporters are a pair of tracked vehicles used to transport spacecraft from NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building along the Crawlerway to Launch Complex 39. They were originally used to transport the Saturn IB and Saturn V rockets during the Apollo, Skylab and Apollo–Soyuz programs....
during the Apollo Program
Project Apollo
The Apollo program was the spaceflight effort carried out by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration , that landed the first humans on Earth's Moon. Conceived during the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Apollo began in earnest after President John F...
. It was used from 1981–2011 to transport the lighter Space Shuttle
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...
s to their launch pads.
Construction of the Crawlerway connected Merritt Island with the mainland, forming a peninsula. The main vehicle access road to and from the launch pads, the Saturn Causeway, runs alongside the crawlerway.