Crawlerway | |
Aerial view of Launch Complex 39. The Crawlerway is the pathway between the Vehicle Assembly Building and Pads 39A and 39B. | |
| Location | Brevard County,Florida United States |
|---|---|
| Nearest city | Merritt Island |
| Coordinates | 28°36′13″N80°37′39″W / 28.60361°N 80.62750°W /28.60361; -80.62750 |
| Built | 1964 |
| MPS | John F. Kennedy Space Center MPS |
| NRHP reference No. | 99001641[1] |
| Added to NRHP | January 21, 2000 |
TheCrawlerway is a 130-foot-wide (40 m)[2] double pathway at theKennedy Space Center inFlorida. It runs between theVehicle Assembly Building and the two launch pads atLaunch Complex 39. It has a length of 3.4 and 4.2 miles (5.5 and 6.8 km) toPad 39A andPad 39B, respectively. A seven-foot (2 m) bed of stones lies beneath a layer ofasphalt and a surface made of Alabama river rocks.
The Crawlerway was originally designed to support the weight of theSaturn V rocket and its payload, plus the Launch Umbilical Tower andmobile launcher platform, atop acrawler-transporter during theApollo program. It was also used from 1981 to 2011 to transport the lighterSpace Shuttles to their launch pads.
Construction of the Crawlerway connectedMerritt 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.
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 andLA 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]
Media related toCrawlerway at Wikimedia Commons