WEBVTT

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Intro music.

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What if your work required you to creep along at less than one mile an hour, carrying an 18-million-pound load on your back?

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Well, that's part of Bob Myers' job description.

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He's one of only nine United Space Alliance engineers certified to drive the Crawler Transporters,

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which ferry Space Shuttles and Mobile Launcher Platforms to the launch pads.

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"Probably one of the best things about the crawler that most people don't know --

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because they always typically ask how fast the crawler moves -- and I always try to tell them one of the greatest

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things about the crawler is how slow it moves.

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The crawler itself can move an eighth of an inch, if you ask it to."

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NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida has two of these enormous transporters,

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originally built to move the Apollo program's 36-story Saturn V rockets.

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But thanks to upgrades and maintenance by people like Bob, the 6-million-pound crawlers continue to work well despite their age.

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In the last two years, the crawlers have undergone major structural, mechanical and electrical upgrades,

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including brand new cabs and mufflers and improved ventilation.

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"The crawler was built back in the early 60s. It has a lot of refurbishment it's always going through.

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We're either refurbishing or modifying something. So there's a lot more to our jobs besides just operating the crawler."

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Bob already knows where he and his colleagues will be when Space Shuttle Discovery streaks into space on the Return to Flight mission.

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"I hope to be actually on this catwalk. This is where we watch probably all of the launches. It's a great place to watch the launch from.

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I'm sure we've all got our fingers crossed, because we want to see a successful launch."

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