Photos: Ares mobile launcher

NASA intends to upgrade one of its Apollo-era treaded crawlers and an inactive mobile platform built for the canceled Ares launcher program to support the agency's colossal super-rocket, officially called the Space Launch System, in time for a test flight in 2017.

These photos show the 390-foot-tall mobile launch platform, views from the top of the tower and shots of the shuttle crawler-transporters.

Read our full story on the plans.

Photo credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now

Click here for a larger panorama of the Kennedy Space Center from the top of the mobile launcher. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now