Shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to roll out to Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39B early Thursday, and Atlantis already is on nearby Launch Complex 39A.
If all goes well, it will be the first time since 2001 two such birds have simultaneously perched on NASA's twin shuttle launch pads. And it probably will be the final time before the shuttle fleet retires in 2010.
Look for Endeavour to emerge from the 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building at 12:01 a.m. A giant tracked transporter creeping along at a speed of less than 1 mph will haul the shuttle and its mobile launcher platform down a river-rock crawlerway to pad 39B. The 4.2-mile trip is expected to take seven hours to complete.
We aim to provide the latest still images from live video feeds in the Launch Complex 39 area during the overnight move, and then we'll webcast live NASA TV coverage starting at 6:30 a.m.
Refresh this page to get the latest still image from the feeds (top left) and click on the image next to it to launch our NASA TV viewer. You can also launch the viewer by clicking the NASA TV box to the right.
A one-day delay in the delivery to pad 39A of the payload for the upcoming launch of Atlantis to the Hubble Space Telescope nixed the possibility of seeing both shuttles with their service structures retracted.
Nonetheless, here's two ways to see the shuttles in person:
++KSC Bus Tours. The Launch Complex 39 Observatory Gantry will open once Endeavour passes by, and the pads also can be seen from the Apollo-Saturn 5 Center. Adult tickets are $38; children are $28.
"What a cool opportunity for our guests!" said Jillian McRae, a spokeswoman for Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts, the firm that operates NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
++Canaveral National Seashore. Both shuttle launch towers can be seen from pulloffs on the road that leads to Playalinda Beach. Park fees are $3 per person; children under 16 are free.
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