Cape Canaveral, Florida, May 14, 2009 - An aerial view shows the crawler-transporter at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the crawlerway that stretches from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pads. Used now to take the shuttles to the launch pads, the crawler also will be used to move the Ares rockets on the mobile launcher, or ML, to the launch pad. A new mobile launcher is being built to launch the Orion crew exploration vehicle and the cargo vehicle. The base is being made lighter than space shuttle mobile launcher platforms so the crawler-transporter can pick up the added load of the 345-foot tower and taller rocket.
