The orbiter Endeavour is in the Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building after a move this morning from its shuttle processing hangar.
Mounted atop a 76-wheel transporter, the $1.8 billion spaceship was backed out of Bay No. 2 of the Orbiter Processing Facility about 7:36 a.m. About 100 workers escorted the orbiter as it was wheeled into the 52-story assembly building. The quarter-mile move took about 20 minutes to complete.
The orbiter will be hoisted about a mobile launcher platform and then connected to an external tank with attached solid rocket boosters. The fully assembled shuttle is scheduled to roll out to launch pad 39A a week from today.
Endeavour and seven astronauts are scheduled to launch March 11 on a mission to delivery a two-armed Canadian robot and the first section of the Japanese Kibo science research facility to the International Space Station.
IMAGE NOTE: Click to enlarge this FLORIDA TODAY photo of workers escorting the orbiter Endeavour into the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center. Photo credit: Michael R. Brown, FLORIDA TODAY.
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