Preparations continue to roll shuttle Discovery to Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A on Wednesday, where it will meet a payload delivered Sunday evening. Space center workers are now loading a canister holding the 31,000-pound payload into the pad's changeout room, shown at left.
The 45-foot girder is the last piece of the International Space Station's central truss, and holds a final pair of Boeing Co.-built solar arrays.
It will take up most of Discovery's payload bay when it is installed, expected Jan. 17.
The payload left a processing facility at 5 p.m. Sunday and arrived at the pad three hours later.
A device called the payload ground handling mechanism lifted the canister from its 48-wheeled transporter in preparation for transfer into the changeout room, a secure, environmentally controlled facility at the launch pad.
Meanwhile, workers on Sunday finished attaching Discovery to its external fuel tank in the Vehicle Assembly Building.
The shuttle's 3.4-mile trip to the launch pad aboard a giant crawler-transporter is scheduled to begin at 4 a.m. Wednesday and take five to seven hours.
IMAGE NOTE: Click on the image to enlarge it. The canister containing the S6 truss and solar arrays is lifted up to the payload changeout room at Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A. Photo credit: Jim Grossmann
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