KSC-2013-2816

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Technicians in the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, are removing cover plates in preparation for replacing the roller bearing assemblies on crawler-transporter 2, or CT-2. The modifications are designed to ensure CT-2's ability to transport launch vehicles currently in development, such as the agency's Space Launch System which will send the Orion spacecraft carrying humans to new destinations in the solar system. The Ground Systems Development and Operations Program office at Kennedy is overseeing the upgrades to CT-2 so that it can carry NASA’s Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket and new Orion spacecraft to the launch pad. For more than 45 years the crawler-transporters were used to transport the mobile launcher platform and the Apollo-Saturn V rockets and, later, space shuttles to Launch Pads 39A and B. For more information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/ground/crawler-transporter_bearings.html Photo credit: NASA/Tim Jacobs