Space shuttle Endeavour stood poised this morning on Kennedy Space Center launch pad 39A, after making its final planned trip from the Vehicle Assembly Building.Thousands of KSC workers and their families braved chilly weather and watched the majestic spectacle as Endeavour, mounted atop a mobile launcher platform and bathed in powerful xenon floodlights, was hauled toward the pad by an Apollo-era crawler-transporter.
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The orbiter reached the pad at 3:49 a.m.
Running 24 hours late as a result of stormy weather, the rollout came just a day after sistership Discovery landed here at KSC on its 39th and final flight.
Endeavour's crew is led by Mark Kelly, the husband of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. Giffords was critically injured during a Jan. 8 assassination attempt in Tucson that killed six people and wounded more than a dozen others.
Four mission specialists also are on the crew: Greg Chamitoff, Andrew Feustel, Michael Fincke and Roberto Vittori of the European Space Agency.
The Endeavour launch is scheduled for 7:48 p.m. April 19. A three-day countdown is slated to pick up at 5:43 p.m. April 16.
ABOUT THE PHOTO: Endeavour on the pad in the morning sunlight. Photo by Michael Brown
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