Mary Hanna outlines the upgrades planned for the crawler-transport to support NASA's Space Launch System rocket.

At NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Mary Hanna, NASA crawler-transporter project manager, outlines the upgrades planned for the crawler-transport to support NASA's forthcoming Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket. Hanna's audience is made up of media representatives taking the 21st Century Ground Systems tour. Other stops on the tour include the Vehicle Assembly Building, the new mobile launcher on Launch Pad 39B, and the Launch Control Center's Firing Room 1. These facilities and equipment will be used to prepare and launch NASA's new Orion spacecraft.

The tour was arranged as part of prelaunch media activities for the agency's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) launch. Liftoff of MSL aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is planned during a launch window which extends from 10:02 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. EST on Nov. 26. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann