How do you transport a space shuttle on the ground?

Answer 1

Answer

Before launch the shuttle is moved to the launchpad by the Shuttle Crawler-Transporter from the Vehicle Assembly Building. If the last landing has occurred at the Edwards Airforce Base in California, it will have been brought to this building by the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, a 747 especially adapted to 'piggyback' it. At other times, the shuttle is pushed or towed by vehicles similar to those that move planes at airports.

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The orbiter vehicle, commonly known as the space shuttle, is actually only one piece of the Shuttle Transportation System (STS), which is stacked with the External Tank (ET) and the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB's) only after it has been prepared for flight in the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF). Once prepared for flight in the OPF, the landing gear remains in the "up" position until the orbiter lands, following each mission.

The flight-ready orbiter is transported aboard a special multi-wheeled transporter from the OPF to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) where large cranes hoist it off the transporter and lift it into place aboard the Crawler-Transporter where it will be mated to the already stacked ET and SRB's to form the STS.

Once the orbiter returns to the Kennedy Space Center landing facility, either having been transported here by the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) or directly landing following a mission, it will be towed to the OPF using an aircraft-tow "tug", where it will be prepared for its next mission, beginning the cycle all over again.