I heard a story about this on NPR this AM. Used to haul the space shuttle to the launch pad, it’s the largest vehicle in the world. Top speed is 2 mph, although they never go over .8 mph while hauling the shuttle. Gets an impressive 32 ft./gal.!
32 ft/gal? Is that the hybrid version?
It’s a big honkin tractor!
My company has cleaned many of the lines on the MLP (mobile launch platform, a part of the entire crawler structure) over the years. Some cleaned in-place and others at our facility. As you can imagine, it’s waaayyyy easier to clean the lines in-place than to disassemble/remove/clean/reinstall. Here’s a really nice picture taken a few months ago:
COOL pic!
I wonder if they break really hard if the shuttle would topple over…I dont see any tie downs…
In an interview with one of the 6 guys qualified to drive it, he said they always celebrate a successful trip with chips and salsa.
wat! No beer? ;D
They asked him if they were going to celebrate with champagne since this is the last trip. He acted like he was offended to be asked and kept saying “No, chips and salsa”.
They were used way back when to move the Saturn V (among others) which absolutely dwarfs the shuttle.
I wonder is those are the stage names of the “entertainers” with which they celebrate.
(Insert rimshot, here.)
Huge. I remember seeing it on “Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe;” the “Bridge Painter” Episode (Season 3, Episode 14).
I’ll bet it’s driven by a little old, gray haired, lady. The same one I get behind every time I’m on 2 lane road.
The roadway the crawler drives on from the VAB to the pad is made of river rocks. I have a piece of one of those rocks (crushed by Challenger’s rollout for mission STS-41C on it’s way to Pad 39A) on my desk in front of me.
I collect rocks from places I visit. This particular rock is one of my most prized.
I wonder if it has automatic parallel parking?
Years ago one of the car magazines had an article on the transporter. I remember that it was powered by a couple of ALCO locomotive Diesel engines.
Been working in near 100* heat today…I thoughrt this was a thread about NASCAR. :-\
Not from me, buddy!
Glad to hear that. I was really relieved when I realized it wasn’t. ;D
Downright un-American… 
I know how you feel. I was really disappointed on the weekend when “Homemade Soup” turned out to be “Homemade Soap”. Mis-reading a thread is a huge let-down.