It’s the dawn of a new era.
Imagine a spaceport of the future, where a variety of space vehicles are preparing for launch, to depart Earth on missions to expand humanity’s reach into space. At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Ground Systems program is propelling this vision forward, leading the center’s transformation from a historically government-only launch complex to a spaceport bustling with activity involving government and commercial vehicles alike.
Ground Systems provides support to NASA’s Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System and will proudly be there as America’s next generation spacecraft take flight. This is where it all comes together. The Ground Systems team is upgrading infrastructure and facilities to meet tomorrow’s demands, while keeping flexibility in mind, to accommodate a multitude of government and private customers.
INSIDE GROUND SYSTEMS: THE VEHICLE INTEGRATION AND LAUNCH TEAM
The team has developed an adaptable innovative system design to support the next generation spacecraft. They’re modernizing existing structures and vehicles, including a pair of baseball infield-sized crawler transporters. The transporters have carried the load of taking rockets and spacecraft to the launch pad for more than 40 years. With the shuttle fleet retired in 2011, the crawlers were envisioned as critical elements of future launch operations at Kennedy. One (CT-1) is being modified to take commercially operated rockets and spacecrafts to the launch pad. The other (CT-2) is being strengthened to handle the Space Launch System and its load, including the Orion spacecraft or other cargo.