Ground support technicians help position a sprocket shaft assembly onto a cradle as an overhead crane lowers down.

Inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, ground support technicians help position a sprocket shaft assembly onto a cradle as an overhead crane lowers it down. The sprocket assembly was removed from the C truck of crawler-transporter 2, or CT-2. They will be placed into shipping cradles on pallets and positioned on a flatbed trailer. The assemblies will be sent to a vendor for inspections and refurbishment.

Work continues in high bay 2 to upgrade CT-2. The modifications are designed to ensure CT-2’s ability to transport launch vehicles currently in development, such as the agency’s Space Launch System, to the launch pad. The Ground Systems Development and Operations Program office at Kennedy is overseeing the upgrades. For more than 45 years the crawler-transporters were used to transport the mobile launcher platform and the Apollo-Saturn V rockets and, later, space shuttles to Launch Pads 39A and B. For more information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/ground/crawler-transporter. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis