The airspace over the mobile launcher park site area is filled with the lumbering arms of multiple cranes for the Constellation Program.

At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the airspace over the mobile launcher park site area is filled with the lumbering arms of multiple cranes, all doing their part in the construction of a new mobile launcher, or ML, for the Constellation Program. The launcher is being built at the site, north of Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building, to support the Ares I rocket.

The launcher's tower will have multiple platforms for personnel access and be approximately 345 feet tall. The ML will provide a base to launch the Ares I which will transport the Orion crew exploration vehicle, its crew and cargo to low Earth orbit. The base is being made lighter than space shuttle mobile launcher platforms so the crawler-transporter can pick up the heavier load of the tower and taller rocket. For information on the Ares I, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ares. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett