Volkswagon Transporter Shuttle

Volkswagon Transporter Shuttle

Volkswagon Transporter Shuttle

The Shuttle Discovery marked the 1st of February 2011 by safely reaching Launch Pad 39A at 2:55 a.m. EST. The 3.4 mile night time journey, known by NASA technicians as the ‘rollout’, began at 7:58 p.m. EST Monday (0100 GMT) on the crawler-transporter from the Vehicle Assembly Building 31st of January 2011 and took nearly seven hours to complete.

NASA Crawler Transporters

The Crawler Transporter (CT) that carried Shuttle Discovery for the short journey is the largest self powered vehicle in the world, with two 2,750 horsepower diesel engines. Originally built for the Apollo missions, the CT has maximum speed of one mile an hour – also making it one of the slowest powered vehicles. A sophisticated laser guidance system keeps the platform level and a separate laser docking system ensures correct alignment with the launch pad.