At NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, engineers loaded up four self-propelled modular transporters and have been practicing moving heavy loads.
It takes a big powerful vehicle to move the largest rocket stage in the world, the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage, coming in at 212-feet long and weighing 90 tons without propellant. At NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, engineers loaded up four self-propelled modular transporters and have been practicing moving heavy loads. Each transporter is over 33 feet long and 12 feet wide and can carry 75 tons, equivalent to 14 fully-grown elephants. The transporters built by Wheelift of Waterloo, Iowa, will carry the SLS, NASA’s new rocket made for deep space travel, including the journey to Mars.
Image Credit: NASA/MSFC Michoud image: Steven Seipel