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Crawlerway
United States historic place From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Crawlerway is a 130-foot-wide (40 m)[2] 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 3.4 and 4.2 miles (5.5 and 6.8 km) to Pad 39A and Pad 39B, respectively. A seven-foot (2 m) bed of stones lies beneath a layer of asphalt and a surface made of Alabama river rocks.
Facilities and geographic features of Kennedy Space Center
Facilities and geographical features of Kennedy Space Center:
1
Launch Complex 39 (LC-39A)2
Launch Complex 39 (LC-39B)3
Vehicle Assembly Building4
Shuttle Landing Facility5
Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex6
Apollo/Saturn V Center7
Banana River8
Indian River9
KSC Headquarters Building10
Astronaut Beach House11
Banana Creek12
Cochran Cove13
Operations and Checkout Building14
Launch Complex 4815
SpaceX Roberts Road Operations Center16
Exploration Park17
Blue Origin Ransom Road facility18
Crawlerway19
Launch Control Center20
Orbiter Processing Facilities 1 and 221
Orbiter Processing Facility 322
Launch Complex 39 Press Site23
Multi-Payload Processing Facility24
Space Systems Processing Facility25
NASA Railroad (Wilson Junction)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.
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Construction
The Crawlerway is composed of two 40-foot-wide (12 m) lanes, separated by a 50-foot (15 m) median. The top layer is Alabama river rock, 4 inches (10 cm) thick on the straight sections and 8 inches (20 cm) thick on curves. Alabama river rock was chosen for many properties, including hardness, roundness, sphericity and LA abrasion test score.[3] Beneath that is 4 feet (1.2 m) of graded, crushed stone, resting on two layers of fill.[2] By 2013, a project to repair and upgrade the Crawlerway was undertaken, the first time since it was constructed that the foundation had been repaired. Additional rock was added to the surface in June 2014.[4]
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Gallery
- Crawlerway under construction in December 1963
- Apollo 14 rolls to Pad 39A in November 1970
- 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
- Close up of Crawlerway in April 2005; originally smooth, the rocks have been crushed after many passages by the crawler-transporters
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References
External links
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