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Crawlerway

Field	Value
name	Crawlerway
image	VAB Aerial - GPN-2000-000869 (cropped).jpg
image_size	275px
caption	Aerial view of Launch Complex 39. The Crawlerway is the pathway between the Vehicle Assembly Building and Pads 39A and 39B.
location	Brevard County, Florida
nearest_city	Merritt Island
coordinates
locmapin	Florida#USA
built	1964
added	January 21, 2000
refnum	99001641
mpsub	John F. Kennedy Space Center MPS

The Crawlerway is a 130 ft 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 5535 and to Pad 39A and Pad 39B, respectively. A 7 ft bed of stones lies beneath a layer of asphalt and a surface made of Alabama river rocks.

The Crawlerway was originally designed to support the weight of the Saturn V rocket and its payload, plus the Launch Umbilical Tower and mobile launcher platform, atop a crawler-transporter during the Apollo program. It was also used from 1981 to 2011 to transport the lighter Space Shuttles 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.

Construction

The Crawlerway is composed of two 40 ft lanes, separated by a 50 ft median. The top layer is Alabama river rock, 4 in thick on the straight sections and 8 in thick on curves. Alabama river rock was chosen for many properties, including hardness, roundness, sphericity and LA abrasion test score. Beneath that is 4 ft of graded, crushed stone, resting on two layers of fill.

Gallery

File:NASA Crawlerway under construction in December 1963 (KSC-64C-7).jpg|Crawlerway under construction in December 1963 File:Apollo 14 rollout to Pad A (2).jpg|Apollo 14 rolls to Pad 39A in November 1970 File:S79-35236.jpg|The prototype Space Shuttle Enterprise begins its journey down the Crawlerway from Pad 39A to the VAB in July 1979 following a series of fit-checks File:STS-98 Atlantis rolls to the VAB (KSC-01PP-0135).jpg|The Space Shuttle Atlantis is moved back to the VAB in January 2001 after the launch of STS-98 was scrubbed File:Crawlerway up close.jpg|Close up of Crawlerway in April 2005; originally smooth, the rocks have been crushed after many passages by the crawler-transporters

References

{{NRISref
(October 1991). "Mobile Launcher Platform". NASA.
"NASA Crawlerway Foundation and Compatibility Study".
Herridge, Linda. (February 22, 2013). "Upgrades Will Prepare Crawlerway for Space Launch System". NASA.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

kennedy-space-center apollo-program space-shuttle-program buildings-and-structures-in-merritt-island,-florida national-register-of-historic-places-in-brevard-county,-florida 1964-establishments-in-florida

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