Update: Endeavour On The Move

1:50 p.m. Blogger update: Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex guests lucked into extended, close-up views of Endeavour this afternoon.

An overheated bearing in a transporter track forced the shuttle to stop for more than half an hour right in front of a viewing tower for visitors. The problem was fixed, and the shuttle is moving forward toward pad 39A.

12:15 p.m. Blogger update: Endeavour has reached the turn in its V-shaped route toward launch pad 39A. The Google Earth image at left shows the route, which the shuttle travels at about 1 mph.

Endeavour left pad 39B at 8:28 a.m., and should be "hard down" at its new location by 3 p.m.


Endeavour is on its way to launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center.

The shuttle began its departure from pad 39B just before 8:30 a.m.

The 3.4-mile journey is expected to take up to seven hours, about the same time as a trip from the Vehicle Assembly Building.

You can continue to watch the roll-around here by clicking on the NASA TV viewer on the right side of the page, or by refreshing the page to update this space center Web cam.

Endeavour is riding a giant-tracked crawler-transporter, but not the same one that carried Atlantis from pad 39A back to the assembly building on Monday.

Here's some more detail about the crawler.

And here's a little background on the two seaside launch pads.

IMAGE NOTE: You can enlarge the images above twice by clicking on them. Top, Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex guests look on today while shuttle Endeavour is stopped in its tracks en route to launch pad 39A. Photo credit: Craig Bailey, Florida Today.