CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Even though the next shuttle launch remains months away, hardware continues to be moved around at the Kennedy Space Center as workers take time to perform tests on the equipment they use, even as they maintain their proficiency.

With that in mind, on Monday workers drove a crawler transporter under a Mobile Launch Platform (MLP) and carried it out a short ways towards the launch pads and then returned back to the Vehicle Assembly Building. Atop the MLP: a pair of 149-foot-tall solid rocket boosters, sans external tank and orbiter.

With the boosters braced at the top to minimize their swaying as the crawler transporter hit a blazing top speed of 1 mph, sensors strung throughout the MLP were taking vibration measurements. Analysis of the results should help with future maintenance plans and a better understanding of the loads placed on the shuttle while it is being moved.

Understanding the maintenance requirements on the crawler transporter and MLP is critical to the future success of the shuttle program and any other follow-on projects that may want to use the same hardware. The crawler and MLP are the same structures originally designed and built for Project Apollo during the 1960s.

Credit: NASA