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Is the crawler-transporter still in place underneath the mobile launch platform during the launch?

Organic Marble
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Lee Fairbanks
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1 Answers1

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The Crawler Transporters are removed once the mobile launch platform is seated on the pad structure.

The mobile Launch Platforms have holes in them allowing rocket exhaust through to the flame trench so leaving the transporter in place would result in it being roasted.

In addition the steady upgrades in capacity of the mobile launch platform carrying weight suggest that they can only support the larger rockets while empty, so even if rebuilt to allow rocket exhaust to pass by they would have had capacity issues once fueling started.

GremlinWranger
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  • For Apollo, the crawler took the vehicle/mobile launcher/tower to the pad, dropped it off, went back and got the Mobile Servicing Structure. https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/43839/how-did-they-access-the-lm-to-mount-the-flag-package-while-the-apollo-stack-was/43842#43842 – Organic Marble Dec 10 '21 at 13:58