EPHRATA, Pa. — A Lancaster County trucking company is playing a key role in one of NASA's biggest projects of the year.
In about two months, NASA will launch a new telescope to replace the aging Hubble Telescope. Summers Trucking, located in Ephrata, was tasked with moving the replacement telescope to its launch site on the northeastern coast of South America.
The truck carrying the telescope measured in at 18 feet wide and 15 high, and at times, it needed an escort from military and local police as it traveled to its destination.
Despite the big challenge, the company's vice president said it's a great feeling to be a part of history.
"The fact that we're involved in something that will be documented and talked about in textbooks, on social media, this is a project that is going to be in outer space for probably the next ten plus years capturing things that we've never seen before so we get to be apart of the future and in some ways the history of this country," said John Summers, vice president of Customer Solutions at Summers Trucking.
Summers Trucking has been working with NASA for the last 12 years, moving components of the new Webb Telescope all over the country -- and now the world.