Ready to roll again, NASA’s workhorse crawler has been hauling rockets since Apollo
By Richard Tribou
Published on March 18, 2026.
The workhorse crawler-transporter 2 (CT-2), a 16-million-pound vehicle that has been transporting NASA's rockets for over 60 years, is set to return to the ground for its next trip, a 4.2-mile journey to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) where it will transport the moon-bound Artemis II rocket to Launch Pad 39-B. The vehicle was originally designed to transport the Saturn V rockets of the Apollo program and continued its service during the Space Shuttle Program. It has been tasked with supporting NASA's Artemis program, which will be the first crewed launch of Orion and SLS, targeting liftoff as early as April 1. The crawler, which can handle up to 18 million pounds without fuel, can also handle the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, and Mobile Launcher 1 without fuel. It was operational by 1964 as America pushed towards its goal of landing the first man on the moon.
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