This resulted in the removal of the old exhaust mufflers from the underside of the crawler. One of the main modifications was to reduce the noise caused by the crawlers. But starting with STS-114 for the Return to Flight mission, the crawlers suffered major modifications. Throughout the Shuttle program the crawlers did not change much and were exactly as the configuration for the Apollo program. Side 3 access was not used due to the MLP position. The re-design brought a new access to the MLP through side 1. The crawlers were re-designed for the Space Shuttle in order to carry the MLP from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad.
In July 1965 during a test at Kennedy Space Center it was determined that the crawler's support bearings could not withstand the loads during turns, therefore modifications were done to the steering hydraulic system. There were also problems with the bearings. Originally, there were no steering arms under the crawler, either. The main feature was the stairway access to the Mobile Launch Platform through Side 3. With the original crawler design made by Marion Power Shovel Company, the crawler made its debut with the Apollo program in the 1960s. My model is a very modest representation compared to Micro Artwork's crawler version. Their crawler version is a real challenge for the more experienced scale modelers. Another interesting site is the Micro Artwork site that shows a very highly detailed crawler but in a larger scale. Also plenty of NASA photos of the real crawler were very useful for detailing this papermodel. The main source of information to make this papermodel comes from the ApolloSaturn website, which shows diagrams with dimensions of the real crawler. Both the Crawler and the Mobile Launch Platform will be a perfect match for any AXM Shuttle stack. The Crawler is part of a project that will be complemented with the Mobile Launch Platform. Through the years it has changed very little. The history of the Crawler Transporter goes back to the Apollo Era. Obviously, some details are missing due to scale. This model has all the features the real one has considering the scale used to make this papermodel. I'm proud to release my AXM Shuttle Crawler-Transporter in 1:144 scale.
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