Live at KSC: Atlantis rolls to assembly building

Blogger update: Atlantis completed its move to the Vehicle Assembly Building around 8:10 a.m. Click "Read more" to see additional photos.

As day broke at Kennedy Space Center, the space shuttle orbiter Atlantis began backing out of a processing hangar to begin a quarter-mile trip to the Vehicle Assembly Building just before 7 a.m.

Mounted on a 76-wheeled transporter, the 100-ton space ship is taking its first step toward a planned mid-November launch to the International Space Station.

The mission, numbered STS-129, will deliver spare parts and bring former KSC engineer Nicole Stott home from a three-month stay on the outpost.

Atlantis should be inside the 52-story assembly building within about an hour. (Note: the move stalled with only Atlantis' tail fin outside the hangar for about 10 minutes, starting again around 7:25 a.m.)

There, workers will begin the process of completing the shuttle "stack" -- attaching the orbiter to an external tank and twin solid rocket boosters on a mobile launcher platform.

The assembled shuttle is scheduled to roll out to launch pad 39A next Tuesday.

NASA is targeting a Nov. 12 launch for Atlantis and a crew of six astronauts, but the date could change. Read about potential conflicts here.

The mission would be the fifth and last this year, and the sixth-to-last before NASA is scheduled to retire the shuttle fleet.

Meanwhile, a two-day launch readiness test of the Ares I-X rocket continues today. Personnel supporting the power-up of the 327-foot rocket were called to stations in the Launch Control Center's Firing Room 1 shortly after 7 a.m.

NASA plans to launch the development test flight Oct. 27 from pad 39B.

Several dozen engineers and technicians are following Atlantis this morning during its "rollover" to the VAB. Other center employees have gathered to watch the move and take pictures, and some posed with a "We're Behind You, Atlantis!" banner.

Also, as usual, machine gun-toting guards are standing watch.

















































IMAGES: Atlantis emerges from Orbiter Processing Facility-1 at Kennedy Space Center and rolls a short distance to the Vehicle Assembly Building. Cell phone photos by James Dean.