Crawler-Transporter Question

[mcs_seattle]

Does the crawler stay with the launch platform during launch or does the crawler leave the launch platform at the launch pad and pick it back up after the launch?

 

[giofx]

2nd... <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" />

 

[mcs_seattle]

Thanks... another one of those long lived curiousities of mine answered.<br /><br />

 

[nolirogari]

I recently got a book from off of e-bay that was published by the MSFC Retiree's Assn. and in it there are a large number of "I remember" personal accounts. One recounts how the idea to use the crawler actually came about.<br /><br />Garland D. Johnson wrote (starting on p122): "...One Monday, when we didn't go to the Cape, I went to my office. In the middle of signing timecards, Bobby Erwin walked into my office with a cup of coffee in his hand. Bobby, a native of Kentucky, was a PFC in the Army on loan to us from the days of ABMA. The week prior to this Monday, Bobby had taken his new bride to Paradise KY to meet his mother and father. As he stood there he said "Garland, you won't believe what I saw last week when I was up at my daddy's farm. Bucyrus-Erie shipped in a strip mining shovel down to my daddy's farm in pieces and put it together there." "It has tracks eight feet high with diesel engines in each track. The platform has no vibration on the table and it maintains the table flat within one quarter of an arc-second." "As soon as Bobby said - "a platform as big as a football field" I made the connection with launching the Saturn V."<br /><br />Up to that time they'd been wresteling with concepts from water floats to railroad tracks (none of which were workable), and in comes an Army PFC on-loan to MSFC with the answer that was one of the keys to the Apollo program and every other project that uses the mobile launch concept. So, don't thank von Braun or Debus or anyone else who you've ever heard of- the crawler in the mobile launch concept had its seed planted by someone you've probably never heard of. Intresting trivia... eh?

 

[drwayne]

Thank you *very* much!<br /><br />Wayne <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>"1) Give no quarter; 2) Take no prisoners; 3) Sink everything."  Admiral Jackie Fisher</p> </div>

 

[nolirogari]

That's just one of the gems in this book.

 

[CalliArcale]

The irony of that story is that despite Bucyrus-Erie's obvious expertise (at the time, the only company in the world making things like that), a ruckus was raised in Congress about not having done competitive bidding. They ended up losing, despite having originated the concept, to a company that basically underbid them. The competitor (can't remember the name) ended up going overbudget anyway, so it really didn't save them anything, but them's the rules of government contracting. <img src="/images/icons/frown.gif" /><br /><br />Cool machine, though. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[drwayne]

Great plug there. You got me drooling. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />Wayne<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>"1) Give no quarter; 2) Take no prisoners; 3) Sink everything."  Admiral Jackie Fisher</p> </div>

 

[drwayne]

Why do I see faint echos of the Jeep story in that.<br /><br />Ahhh, the fascinating world of procurement.<br /><br />Wayne <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>"1) Give no quarter; 2) Take no prisoners; 3) Sink everything."  Admiral Jackie Fisher</p> </div>

 

[nolirogari]

I'm sure that a new mobile service structure will have to be built for the SDLV In-Line heavy lift booster and one will likely be needed for The Stick, simply for protection from the elements. The crawlers will be earning their money once again! BTW- I hear that NASA is celebrating the Crawler's 40th birthday on Friday.

 

[nolirogari]

I understand it that is the plan. I also know from history that the best laid plans of contractors and NASA tend to grow and over-run. Just for fun I'll bet ya' any one of my model rocket kits we see MSS's growing before the first stick launches. (betting against shuttle_guy... what am I... nuts?)

 

[nolirogari]

Yer' on!... Hey!...<br /><br />Wait a second... what do I get if I win?

 

[najab]

I'd suggest you should get a ride in shuttle_guy's paraplane.

 

[nolirogari]

I'll take the rock! (Do I get to come and pick it up myself?) A ride in the aircraft is not worth a lot to me since I spent most of my adult life strapped into the nose of some pointy flying machine (the thrill is gone, or rather, beaten out of me)... but a crawlerway rock... Oooooo!<br /><br />I think we should define a MSS as anything that must be moved by means of the crawler to the pad which is used to service and or shelter the launch vehicle. So a cherry-picker would not count.

 

[tplank]

What was the name of that book? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>The Disenfranchised Curmudgeon</p><p>http://tonyplank.blogspot.com/ </p> </div>

 

[nolirogari]

Captain... FO... IP... you name it. Falcon 10, Falcon 20, B727, BE200, SF340, DHC-7, BE-18, T-303 and some 1,500 hours in bug-smashers too numerous to mention. Three logbooks, several different sets of wings, 3 airline uniforms, 3 furloughs and way, way, way too many hotels. I had a travel bag that went 5 years without ever being fully unpacked... and then the wheels fell off. Ahhh yes... the world of professional pilot... such glamour

 

[nolirogari]

Here's a fun one... NASA is having a "Press day" today, January 13, 2006 to denote the 40th anniversary of the crawler's first operational trip... which actually took place on Jan. 28, 1966. Of course this year the 28th falls on a Saturday and I suppose there's no way that NASA public affairs folks could be asked to work on a Saturday... so they decided to have it on Friday the 13th... just for luck.<br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/news/releases/2005/release-20060104b.html

 

[nacnud]

Or could it be that it's also the 20th anniversary of Challenger? I don't think events for the two would mix well.

 

[nolirogari]

Wow- I was thinking the 51L date was the 27th... and I saw the darned thing go too, so you'd think I'd remember. You could be correct in your thinking- that would be the PR thing to do, celebrate one event early and stand respectfully silent on the 28th.