Coming Up: Shuttles On Both Pads

Endeavour is scheduled to rollout to Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39B early Thursday, opening up what likely will be a final opportunity to see space shuttles on both pads here at the nation's primary spaceport.

Sistership Atlantis already is on nearby Launch Complex 39A, and it just so happens that the payload for its upcoming mission to the Hubble Space Telescope is scheduled to head out to its pad, too.

Consequently, the rotating service structures at both complexes will be backed away from the shuttles, creating a last chance to see fully assembled shuttles on both pads before NASA's three-orbiter fleet is retired in 2010.

You can watch it here in The Flame Trench.

Endeavour is slated to emerge from the Vehicle Assembly Building at 12:01 a.m. Thursday and we hope to bring you images from live video feeds here at Launch Complex 39.

We'll also webcast NASA TV coverage beginning at 6:30 a.m. You'll be able to click the NASA TV box to the right -- or the still grab from NASA TV above -- to launch our NASA TV viewer. Also, you can refresh the page to see the latest still image from a video live video feed of Atlantis at pad 39A.

If the service structure at pad 39A is retracted during normal business hours -- and that is a BIG IF -- then the public would have two ways to see the shuttles:

++Bus Tours at the KSC Visitor Complex.

Once Endeavour rolls past the Launch Complex 39 Observation Tower, which is located about half-way down NASA's river-rock crawlerway, bus tours will stop at the site. Customers also will be able to see the shuttles from the lawn in front of the Apollo-Saturn 5 Center. Click here for ticket information: Visit KSC

++Canaveral National Seashore.

Visitors would be able to see the shuttles from the pull-offs on the road that leads to Playalinda Beach. For information on fees, click here: Canaveral National Seashore

A delay in moving the gantry back at pad 39A might yield a clear view of Endeavour at pad B and an obscured view of Atlantis on pad A. NASA will also be watching the weather, and the Endeavour rollout could be delayed if thunderstorms or rainshowers sweep into the area.

Endeavour is slated to blast off from pad 39A on Nov. 12 on an International Space Station outfitting mission. The shuttle is being moved to pad 39B so it will be ready to fly a rescue mission should Atlantis sustain critical damage during its Hubble servicing mission.

The plan is to move Endeavour to pad 39A once it is clear a rescue mission will not be required. Pad 39B will be turned over to Project Constellation so it can be modified for NASA's Ares 1 rockets. Nine remaining shuttle flights then will be launched from pad 39A.

This will be the 17th time shuttles have been on 39A and 39B simultaneously. For an official NASA list, click here: Shuttles On Both Pads

IMAGE NOTE: Click to enlarge and save the NASA image of shuttles perched simultaneously on launch pads 39A and 39B. Taken the summer of 2001, the image shows Discovery (foreground) and Atlantis (background) being readied for missions to the International Space Station. (STS-105 and STS-104, respectively). Towering above each shuttle is the 80-foot lightning rod that protects the vehicles from lightning strikes. At right are the 290-foot water tanks that dump 300,000 gallons of water on the pad during liftoff so that significant acoustical vibrations created at launch do not damage shuttles or their payloads. Photo credit: NASA.