NASA mates Discovery's tank, boosters

NASA and its prime shuttle contractor are testing electrical connections between an external tank and twin solid rocket boosters as the agency presses ahead with preparations for the Oct. 23 launch of Discovery on an International Space Station assembly mission.

Crane operators in the Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building hoisted the 154-foot-long tank out of a checkout cell Wednesday and lowered it onto a mobile launcher platform in High Bay 1. The bullet-shaped external tank then was connected to a pair of segmented solid rocket boosters that already had been stacked on the platform.

Technicians and engineers will spend the next five days doing mechanical and electrical tests aimed at ensuring the tank and the boosters are mated properly.

Discovery is scheduled to move into the assembly building from its processing hangar on Sept. 19. The fully assembled shuttle will move out to the pad on Sept. 27.

The crew for the mission will board Discovery at the pad Oct. 10 for the last three hours of a launch-day dress rehearsal.

IMAGE NOTE: Click to enlarge the NASA photo of the external tank for the planned Oct. 23 launch of Discovery being lowered into position in High Bay 1 of the Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building. Photo credit: NASA/George Shelton.