Space Shuttle Endeavour on the Launch Pad, Ready for March Launch

A space shuttle rollout at Kennedy Space Center is incredible technology on the move. The crawler transporters that ferry the vehicle to the launch pad have been in service since the Apollo moon landing era. They carried the massive Apollo/Saturn rockets.




The two tracked Crawler-Transporters previously used to move the assembled Apollo/Saturn from the VAB to the launch pad are now used for transporting Shuttle vehicles.
Transporter Statistics

* Weight: 2,721 metric tons (6 million pounds)
* Length: 40 meters (131 ft) wide, 35 meters (114ft) long
* Miles: 2,526 miles (1,243 miles since 1977)

KSC has 2 crawler-transporters. Each vehicle consists of four double-tracked crawlers, each 3 meters (10 ft) high and 12 meters (41 ft) long. Each of the 8 tracks on a vehicle contains 57 shoes per track and each tread shoe weighs about .9 metric tons (one ton). Click here to see the crawler moving a shuttle .

The Crawler/Transporter is powered by 16 traction motors powered by four 1,000 kw generators, driven by two 2,750hp diesel engines. Two 750 kw generators, drived by two 1,065 hp diesel engines are used for jacking, steering, lighting, and ventilating. Two 150 kw generators are also used for MLP power.

When they were built, the KSC crawlers were the largest tracked vehicles ever made. (Surpassed by the Bagger 288 German excavator). They move the Mobile Launcher Platform into the Vehicle Assembly Building and then to the Launch Pad with an assembled space vehicle. Maximum speed is 1.6km (one mile) per hour loaded, about 3.2 km (2 miles) per hour unloaded. Launch Pad to VAB trip time with the Mobile Launch Platform is about 5 hours. The crawler burns 568 liters (150 gallons) of diesel oil per mile.

The top of the orbiter is kept vertical within plus or minus 10 minutes of arc, about the diameter of a basketball during the journey. Leveling systems within the crawler keeps the platform level while negotiating the 5% ramp leading up to the pad surface.

The height of the crawler is 6 meters (20ft) to 8 meters (26 feet) adjustable. The top deck is flat and square, about the size of a baseball infield, 27 meters (90 feet) on a side. Two operator control cabs, one at each end of the chassis, are used to control all crawler systems.

"Baby Boomer" UFO Craze Hits 60 as UFOs Appear in Turkey

Presidential wannabe Hillary Clinton, one of the poster children for the narcissistic branch of the Baby Boomers family tree, is now 60. Last night she and Bill, the presidential has-been, partied down with Elvis Costello, Billy Crystal, and folks who paid up to $2,000 a head to come to the NYC party.

But hers aren't the only candles and the only cake. This year, the modern UFO craze turns 60 too. Not only that, the year's significance hits a triple fruit on the old slot machine of coincidence.

Most importantly, there was Roswell, NM. where a UFO with aliens aboard reportedly crashed in the New Mexico desert. The fallout from that crash--which official sources said was only a weather balloon accident--continues with tales of autopsies on dead aliens, removal of live aliens, secret research on aliens at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. and those Men in Black.

After Roswell, the term "flying saucer" became a part of our official, everyday English. The Washington Post, in a rock 'n roll riff of offbeat news, cheerfully reported that it was only 55 (numerologists, take note!) years ago that the paper ran headlines like: 'Saucer' Outran Jet, Pilot Reveals" and "D.C. Girl Sees Saucer Float Under Clouds" as UFOs paraded around DC.

And the gold rush of ufology was on. Like panning for gold, looking for that elusive sparkle of a real UFO event--not just glittery fool's gold--is hard work. Then there's the testing phase, which is done in the laboratory of human experience and reaction.

If you didn't have the big bucks for Hillary's conga line, there's still a chance to party down, and for no more than $40. A day-long UFO conference, Mysteries of Space and Sky IV: Sixty Years of UFOs, will beam into DC's Anne Arundel Community College Saturday. Various luminaries of the celestial mysteries world will present case studies of UFOs.

And if you miss that event, not to worry. The topic of UFOs is hot, and the candles on this cake aren't likely to go out anytime soon. In fact, in the midst of the Turkey-Iraq-PPK tensions, UFOs have been spotted in the region, some say.




And, as that jazzy little song says "Everything old is new again." The craze for UFOs in the modern era has expanded to denials of America's landing on the moon, which co-exists with a belief that there are top-secret bases on the moon,alien and human.

UFO sightings, crop circles, claims of astronauts seeing strange things in space (usually mostly sparkles from spacecraft debris), aliens, alien abductions--they're all part of the standard daily mix these days. But hey--what do I know? I've read Project Blue Book (the Condon Report), interviewed UFO witnesses, visited Roswell, and have an "Area 51" parking permit on my car. (Disclaimer--perhaps you'd better ask about that permit.)

UFOs, and the purported aliens among us-as well as the jet-setting aliens who only drop in to visit or probe us--are alive and well in books, movies, documentaries, on the lecture circuit and on the internet. Aging well--not that they haven't been sporadically reported for thousands of years-- those strange sightings of crafts and beings have become part of our planetary culture.

Klaatu barada nikto, ya'll.