Update: Endeavour Roll-Around Complete

Workers placed Endeavour "hard down" on launch pad 39A around 4:45 p.m., about eight hours after the shuttle rolled off pad 39B and just in time for rain storms to sweep across Kennedy Space Center.

The shuttle is now in position for a Nov. 14 launch on an outfitting mission to the International Space Station.

"We're in great shape," said Ken Tenbusch, Endeavour's flow director.

Tenbusch said Endeavour has four contingency days available in the launch schedule.

NASA executives will set an official launch date during a flight readiness review next Thursday and Friday.

The launch pad's rotating service structure is expected to close around the shuttle tonight, shielding it from the elements.

The Leonardo cargo module is scheduled to be installed in Endeavour's payload bay Sunday morning, hours before the shuttle's seven-member crew arrives at the space center for three days of training and a practice countdown.

Endeavour traveled 3.4 miles on today's unusual journey from pad B to pad A.

Shuttles have only switched launch pad twice before in the program's history, in 1990 (Columbia) and 1993 (Endeavour).

The move, which was moved up from Saturday because of expected bad weather, allows preparations for the Ares 1X flight test to continue at pad 39B.

A giant crane is scheduled to arrive next month to erect three lightning towers that will soar 600 feet - taller than the Vehicle Assembly Building. The bases of the towers, seen at left, were installed this summer.

The towers were intended for the Ares 1, but if completed on time could eliminate the need to raise the shuttle's lightning mast another 110 feet for the flight test planned next summer.

That and other pad modifications can't begin until after Atlantis' Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, which has been delayed until at least February.

Pad 39B must remain available to launch a rescue shuttle if Atlantis sustains serious damage.

IMAGE NOTE: Click on any of the images to enlarge them up to two times. Above, shuttle Endeavour comes to rest on launch pad 39A atop its mobile launcher platform after rolling around from launch Pad 39B. The shuttle moved off Launch Pad 39B starting at 8:28 a.m. and completed its move to Launch Pad 39A at 4:37 p.m. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett. Endeavour "roll-around" photos by Craig Bailey, Florida Today. Bottom: An Aug. 1 view of lightning towers being constructed to hold centenary wires as part of the new lightning protection system for the Constellation Program and Ares/Orion launches. Pad B will be the site of the first Ares vehicle launch, including Ares I-X flight test. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann.