The new transporter arrives on dock at Port Canaveral. Photo: NASA

NASA's long wait for a pair of new transporters for Shuttle payload canisters finally ended as they arrived by barge on Monday, Jan. 17 from their manufacturer, the KAMAG Transporttechnik, GmbH, of Ulm, Germany. The transporters, which carry spacecraft and International Space Station elements from payload facilities to and from the launch pads and the orbiter hangars, completed the process of a long-term analysis for the need for payload transporters to support Space Shuttle programs well into the new millennium.

Now that the transporters have arrived at KSC, engineers and technicians are being trained on its operation and maintenance. Each payload canister transporter is 65 feet long, 22 feet wide and has 24 tires divided between its two axles. The transporter travels 10 miles per hour unloaded, 5 miles per hour when loaded and weighs up to 172,000 pounds when the canister with payloads rides atop. The transport can hold up to 500 gallons of diesel fuel.

The new transporter is checked out by workers. Photo: NASA

The transporters will be "outfitted" to support Space Shuttle payload launch activities. The outfitting includes adding various subsystems to the transporters for monitoring the environment inside the canister during the payload moves. The four main subsystems for the transporter include electrical power, environmental control, instrumentation and communications and fluids and gasses. The last of the two systems will be removed from the existing payload transporters, refurbished and installed on the new transporters. The other systems will be manufactured new.

"The addition of these new transporters will assure the long-term reliability for moving payload canisters, said Ira Kight, chief of ground system engineering division at NASA. "We are also happy that two of four subsystems can be reinstalled on the new transporters, which will considerably decrease cost and turnaround time."

The outfitting activities require considerable advanced planning to coordinate around the Space Shuttle launch schedule. Only one of the existing transporters can be taken out of service at one time so that a capability can be maintained for transporting International Space Station hardware and other payloads for installation into the Space Shuttle.

The first use for one of the new transporters is anticipated to this summer.

An old transporter takes the Chandra X-ray Observatory to the launch pad for installation into shuttle Columbia last summer. Photo: NASA

NASA, in August 1996, began a study that addressed the long-term decision to continue to operate or to replace the existing Payload Canister Transporter system, now 20 years old.

In the study, options included refurbishment of the existing transporters, refurbishment of NASA's Advanced Solid Rocket Motor transporters to customize them for payload use, or doing a complete replacement of the existing payload transporters.

NASA issued a request for proposal from the Boeing Company (payload ground operations contractor at Kennedy Space Center) for a continuing reliable capability for transportation of the payload canisters.

Boeing and KAMAG, manufacturer of the existing canister transporters, met to discuss the possibility for refurbishment. However, during this discussion, the option of building new transporters similar to those to be used for the new Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) was discussed. Using this concept would result in a significant cost savings to NASA due to the small amount of redesign effort that would be required. Since the EELV program is a commercial venture, additional savings could also be realized by taking a commercial approach to the procurement process.

Boeing presented the concept to NASA management and the proposal was accepted in July 1998. Boeing issued a purchase order to KAMAG for the design and fabrication of two new Payload Canister Transporters, primarily intended to meet the requirements of the Space Shuttle program. Since that time, Boeing has been working with KAMAG developing a plan to customize the transporters and preparing the transporters for delivery to KSC.