Endeavour Move On Tap; Atlantis Ferry On Monday

LIVE IMAGES: The images above are from live video feeds in the Launch Complex 39 area at Kennedy Space Center, where Endeavour is scheduled to roll-around from pad 39B to pad 39A overnight. They will automatically refresh to the most up-to-the-minute image every 30 seconds.

Shuttle Endeavour is set to roll to its seaside launch pad at Kennedy Space Center overnight while sistership Atlantis is being prepped for a cross-country ferry flight now slated to begin in California early Monday.

Now perched on launch pad 39B, Endeavour is scheduled to roll up onto NASA's twin pad 39A sometime between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. EDT Sunday. A call-to-stations in the Launch Control Center is scheduled for 10 p.m. tonight, and first motion at pad 39B is slated for 12:01 a.m.

We're hoping the live video feed above will follow the vehicle to pad 39A.

The move down and around NASA's river-rock crawlerway will clear the way for modifications required to launch the critical Ares I-X test flight off pad 39B later this year. The first test flight in a series aimed at qualifying the Ares 1 rocket to fly astronauts is scheduled for no earlier than Aug. 30.

It also sets the stage for the arrival at KSC on Tuesday of the seven astronauts who will launch on Endeavour on June 13 on a mission to deliver the third and final segment of the Kibo science research facility to the International Space Station.

The astronauts will take part in a two-day practice countdown as well as emergency training on the towering gantry at pad 39A.

The orbiter Atlantis now is scheduled to depart Edwards Air Force Base in California at first light Monday on a two-day trip back to its homeport on Florida's Space Coast.
Atlantis landed at the Mojave Desert military base last Sunday, winding up a wildly successful Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. Three consecutive days of stormy weather in central Florida forced NASA to divert Atlantis and its crew to Runway 22 at Edwards.

Atlantis had been scheduled to depart Edwards Sunday but high winds and thunderstorms stalled prep work for the ferry flight. A protective aerodynamic tailcone was mounted around the orbiter's three main engines. The spaceship is scheduled to be bolted atop the 747 carrier aircraft early Sunday.

The route the 747 will take is still to be determined. Meteorologists are forecasting dynamic weather across both the southwest and southeast, so exactly when Atlantis will arrive back at KSC is unclear.

NASA doesn't expect the orbiter to be back at KSC before Tuesday afternoon. Weather permitting, the 747 pilot will have the option of flying Atlantis over Space Coast beaches between Patrick Air Force Base and KSC on the last leg of the trip back from California.