Barnhart Crane & Rigging has been selected by NASA to transport components for its Space Launch System (SLS).
The project will involve delivery of a mock-up of the core stage for the SLS rocket, weighing 104 tons and measuring 214′ long. The mock-up will be delivered by barge from its final assembly point at the G&G Steel plant in Cordova, Alabama, to NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.
“We don’t want the first time we transport the core stage to be with flight hardware. That’s why having a pathfinder is critical to the program,” said Shane Carpenter, engineering lead at NASA.
An overhead crane will be employed at G&G to load the core stage onto a 200′ Barnhart deck barge and 250′ canal deck barge. At Michoud the mock-up will offloaded onto Goldhofer transporters.
The cargo is scheduled for load-out and transport in March, with the inaugural flight of the SLS, anticipated in late 2018.
Barnhart operates 30 branches across the U.S. and is focused on heavy-lift and heavy transportation projects.
