we're here on the crawler way at nasa's
kennedy space center
i'm joshua santora and i'll be your tour
guide today taking you behind the scenes
and up close
to the behemoth that uses this unique
one-of-a-kind roadway
to travel from the vehicle assembly
building about four miles out to launch
complex 39b
this roadway is specially designed with
a couple layers of fill crushed rock and
then on top you see
tennessee river rock it had to be
specially designed because of how
massive the crawler is
which is an essential part for the
artemis program artemis has three major
elements the space launch system
or sls our heavy lift rocket the orion
crew capsule
and exploration ground systems they're
responsible for all the infrastructure
to actually launch be sure to enjoy the
view and look around at each of our
stops today
let's crawl you're watching a time lapse
video of our mobile launcher rolling out
of the iconic
vehicle assembly building atop the
behemoth crawler transporter
originally used to move the saturn v
rocket from the vehicle assembly
building
or vab to the launch pad the crawlers
have since been used to do the exact
same thing for the space shuttle
and they recently underwent extensive
maintenance to ensure they're ready
for the next chapter in human
spaceflight
at a blistering top speed of one mile
per hour these workhorses have each
put in over 3 400 miles in no more than
four mile increments
and being this massive they only get
about 32 feet per gallon
but don't worry they're hybrids you can
see as it rolls by the driver's station
just above that first set of tracks
we'll actually stop in to check out the
view the driver gets in a few minutes
right now you're seeing this at about
seven times normal speed
and this is regular speed
there's a reason we call it the crawler
to give you a little perspective on the
weight you see what we call
shoes that make up the tracks at each
corner each of the eight tracks has 57
shoes
and each shoe weighs a ton literally one
ton
i'll let you do the math on how much
weight for just the shoes
you're about to get a one-of-a-kind
never-before-seen immersive view as the
crawler
will roll right over us watch your head
since 1965 we've relied on a nearly
identical pair of these crawlers
the largest tracked vehicles in the
world
weighing in at over 6 million pounds
each these monsters are able to haul the
more than 11 million pound mobile
launcher
that's being carried as we speak along
with the 5.75 million pound space launch
system rocket
and orion spacecraft from the vab to the
pad
here inside one of two driver seats for
the crawler
you can see the actual driving is pretty
simple a small wheel for direction and a
knob for speed
we're currently parked outside launch
complex 39b where the crawler has
already set the mobile launcher down in
place ahead on the mound
because of its size we never turn the
crawler around we move forward to the
pad
then move the driver to the other driver
station on the opposite corner
driving backward toward the vab this
thing is so large you could fit a
professional baseball diamond on top
we hope you'll continue to track our
progress as we work towards the first
woman and next
man to walk on the surface of the moon
from nasa's kennedy space center
for exploration ground systems program
that's all for today
remember we build launch and recover for
the next evolution in humanities deep
space exploration
and remember even the sky isn't the
limit
you