How is a rocket moved?

[rosenkranz]

Exactly how is a rocket transported from the VAB to the launch pad? Actually i've seen the crawlers that do that but how is the rocket actually put on the pad? or is it launched off the crawler?

Edit: I may have found the answer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHHO-g7fDgA

Edited April 26, 2013 by rosenkranz

[Daze]

The crawler transport together the rocket and the MLP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Launcher_Platform) which is where the rocket is launched.

[comham]

The russian way of building the rocket horizontally, moving it by rail and finally raising it seems more elegant.

[Guest]

Until you consider trying to do that with a fully assembled Saturn V, and you quickly find that it's logistically easier to leave it upright and s-l-o-w-l-y roll it to the pad.

[Guest trolling trains]

uh build it on the pad lol

[rosenkranz]

Yeah, looks like the rocket is built on the mobile platform then the crawler gets under it and carries out to the pad. Was wondering since in KSP the ship just appears on the pad and I was having difficulty imagining how it got there from the VAB.

It would be kind of cool to have the ship appear on the pad atop what looks like a mobile platform with the crawler seen making its way back to the VAB as the scene loads.

[Guest]

It was an impressive sight to see, but incredibly boring to watch for very long.

[rosenkranz]

yeah, watching that video, you can see it took all day to get it from the pad to the VAB

[comham]

Until you consider trying to do that with a fully assembled Saturn V, and you quickly find that it's logistically easier to leave it upright and s-l-o-w-l-y roll it to the pad.

Well yeah, in extreme cases it doesn't work so well. But for most rockets it's fine.

[Stealth2668]

At least they were showing it at x1,000,000 speed

[Guest]

Well yeah, in extreme cases it doesn't work so well. But for most rockets it's fine.

Which they did up until the Saturn series. Here's one of the locomotives they used. Locomotive used to transport Gemini-Titan rockets to Launch Complex 19, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

[Bugbear]

Here's a more detailed video for the NASA crawler:

And here is the Russian train that carries rockets:

[Daze]

Until you consider trying to do that with a fully assembled Saturn V, and you quickly find that it's logistically easier to leave it upright and s-l-o-w-l-y roll it to the pad.

The N1 also was moved horizontally to the launch pad and it was bigger than SV (...yes it exploded, but it was problem of engineering )

[CalculusWarrior]

I've thought of creating a crawler with the giant rover wheels and attach a rocket with a decoupler. That's what I'll work on next!

[Bessy]

by watching that video you can so feel why the devs have no intention of adding such a thing into the game tehe

[Guest]

The N1 also was moved horizontally to the launch pad and it was bigger than SV (...yes it exploded, but it was problem of engineering )

I'm familiar with the N1 as well. A really ambitious machine that could have been a technological marvel in its own right. Though the Saturn V was actually 19 feet taller.

[magnemoe]

Well yeah, in extreme cases it doesn't work so well. But for most rockets it's fine.

The Russians even used this for their space shuttle. Granted the shuttle is far shorter and wider than the Saturn 5.

Not sure how its done for falcon 9, ariane and other medium sized rockets.

[Canopus]

Ariane 5 is transported standing on a crawler that uses tracks instead of treads.

Edit: I found a video about it:

I just noticed that the VAB at Guiana and the one in KSP have somewhat similar colors.

Edited April 26, 2013 by Canopus

[macintux]

Until you consider trying to do that with a fully assembled Saturn V, and you quickly find that it's logistically easier to leave it upright and s-l-o-w-l-y roll it to the pad.

The Russians were able to do it with the N1 and Buran, so we COULD have done it with the Saturn V and Shuttle, we just chose not to.

[Nibb31]

Until you consider trying to do that with a fully assembled Saturn V, and you quickly find that it's logistically easier to leave it upright and s-l-o-w-l-y roll it to the pad.

The N-1 and Energia-Buran were integrated horizontally and erected on the pad.

Horizontal integration can be done in a traditional hangar and the diesel locomotives are pretty standard equipment. Vertical integration is limited by the size of the VAB, and the crawlers are expensive and difficult to maintain.

[Sathurn]

I don't think the Russians had to worry about hurricane force winds at their launch pad. While takes all day to move it, it can be back in the VAB before a hurricane can strike.

[Guest]

I don't think the Russians had to worry about hurricane force winds at their launch pad. While takes all day to move it, it can be back in the VAB before a hurricane can strike.

Exactly. Once you have a beast the size of a Saturn V erected, you don't want to have to sling it back down onto a train, haul it back, haul it to the pad again, erect it once more, and hope nothing got screwed up in the process. Also, the massive F-1 engines would not have taken kindly to lying horizontally for any period of time once you got them installed. Another design constraint: the LEM. An awfully delicate piece of machinery to be shimmying around. The LK was far sturdier in that respect.

Edited April 27, 2013 by Guest

[Temstar]

No horizontal assembly require rockets with more robust structure to survive being hoisted up to the vertical. A stronger, stiffer rocket has to pay for that advantage with a bit more dead weight in the form of more structural elements, the advantage is that it's much much easier and cheaper to assemble than a vertically stacked rocket. Russians feel that this cost saving for the price of slightly reduced payload is worth it while NASA is always about using the most cutting edge technology and material to squeeze every little bit of performance out of their rocket, even if that meant much more expensive rockets.

It's a case of beautifully engineered, hand crafted, exorbitantly expensive machines vs big dumb (and cheap) booster.

N1 is quite something. It's so big it needs two trains working together to pull it to the launch pad.

Edited April 26, 2013 by Temstar

[Rocketscience101]

The top of the crawler actually comes off, it is slid into place over the launchpad, and the crawler rolls away as before launch. It also has a gimbaling on it to keep the spacecraft upright, so it doesn't fall over at that incline up to the launch pad.

[Fulbert]

And then there's Energia-Buran that had the carrier so huge they actually built houses and streetlights on it.