Dragon Wagon in Apollo space program

[maddawg308]

Well, sorta. Saw this on Wikipedia, picture of a M26 Dragon Wagon Pacific (the unarmored one) working underneath a Saturn V rocket section sometime around 1970. Link below, and a pic. The DW is the large (but small in the picture) vehicle bottom center.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...st_stage_in_the_Vehicle_Assembly_Building.jpg

..

 

[Ripcord01]

That is a cool picture!

 

[WillWagner]

Think it's pulling or trying to back it into position?

 

[rlwm211]

From what I can see, I believe the Dragon Wagon is holding the booster bottom as the crane eases it into the vertical position. The DW may have towed the section into the building before this shot. I cannot think of any other reason for the truck to be where it is otherwise.

RL

 

[NDT]

NASA used lots of military vehicles over the years. Here at Johnson Space Center in Houston, they had 3 ea WWII C-2 wrecking lowboy trailers, one of which ended up with me. They also have a small fleet of tactical LOX tube semitrailers from the Air Force missile days. Kennedy had several M113 APCs used for firefighting.

 

[Jeff Lakaszcyck]

This is a great photo, it actually appeared in the Hemmings blog about 4 months ago. I don't go back to the Apollo days but I have worked at KSC for several years. I'm certain that the M26A1 and the blue dolly are not connected to the Saturn V 1st stage in any way at the moment this picture was taken. What is happening during this lifting operation is very similar to how the Space Shuttle is moved from it's horizontal position to vertical. The top of the Saturn V section is being supported by the 250 ton bridge crane which is 400 feet above the floor and cannot be seen in this photo (only the hook is visible). The 175 ton crane seen at the top of the image is attached to the bottom of the Saturn V segment, but due to the angle of the photo none of this rigging can be seen. NASA used the M26A1 Dragon Wagons as prime movers for the Saturn V 1st stages. It appears that they had more than one M26. These trucks are long gone from the area, and I don't know what became of them. I do know of at least 6 M26A1's that ended up within about 25 miles of the Kennedy Space Center, but most are also long gone now. I don't know if any of these were former NASA trucks. Attached is a pic of an M26A1 prime mover towing a Saturn V 1st stage.

 

[kennys@wi.rr.com]

Knowing the size of that truck it really brings the size of the rocket into scale. Man that's big.

 

[Alredneck]

That has to be some torque and great gearing to move a load that size!

I wonder if the Dastly Dodge was still alive if it could handle that rocket!