Live at KSC: Atlantis set for Tuesday move to VAB

Kennedy Space Center workers are preparing the orbiter Atlantis for a Tuesday move to the Vehicle Assembly Building, where the space shuttle will be put together for a planned mid-November launch.

Atlantis is expected to start rolling a quarter-mile from a processing hanger to the 52-story assembly building around 7 a.m., mounted horizontally on a 76-wheeled transporter.

Once inside, the orbiter will be hoisted into a high bay and attached to a 15-story external tank that is already mounted with twin solid rocket boosters atop a mobile launcher platform.

The platform and assembled shuttle are expected to roll out 3.4 miles to launch pad 39A early Oct. 13.

Atlantis and six astronauts are scheduled to blast off Nov. 12 on an 11-day mission to deliver spare parts to the International Space Station.

Click here to read an update on issues that could affect the launch date.

The crew of the mission labeled STS-129 - the sixth to last shuttle flight remaining - is scheduled to arrive at KSC on Oct. 19 for three days of standard countdown rehearsal training.

Charlie Hobaugh is the mission commander. He'll be joined by pilot Barry "Butch" Wilmore and mission specialists Randy Bresnik, Michael Foreman, Leland Melvin and Robert Satcher.

Bresnik, Satcher and Wilmore will be making their first spaceflight.

Former KSC engineer Nicole Stott will return home with the crew after a three-month tour as a space station flight engineer. She flew to space Aug. 28 aboard shuttle Discovery.

Follow Stott's tweets here.

Atlantis' last flew in May 11-24, supporting a successful fifth and final mission to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope.

IMAGE NOTE: In Orbiter Processing Facility 1 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 25, space shuttle Atlantis' payload bay doors are being closed. The designated shuttle for the STS-129 mission, Atlantis will deliver to the International Space Station two spare gyroscopes, two nitrogen tank assemblies, two pump modules, an ammonia tank assembly and a spare latching end effector for the station's robotic arm. Atlantis is targeted to launch Nov. 12. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller.