Live at KSC: Atlantis on Launch Pad

Editor's note: Atlantis was declared "hard down" on the launch pad at 11:17 a.m.

Shuttle Atlantis has climbed up launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center, and workers are lowering its mobile launcher platform on to supporting pedestals.

The shuttle rolled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at 3:54 a.m., carried by a six million-pound crawler-transporter. It reached the pad around 10 a.m., after a pause to grease a bearing.

"It feels really good to have her come back out again," said Angie Brewer, the flow director for Atlantis.

It's the second 3.4-mile ride out to the pad for the shuttle on its mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.

Atlantis was on the launch pad in September but rolled back to a hanger after the telescope suffered a computer failure that delayed the mission from October to a targeted May 12 launch.

Brewer said the spaceship took advantage of its time off to get ahead on some processing that otherwise would have been done after the Hubble flight, such as inspecting heat shields for corrosion or damage.

She said the shuttle, which was attached to a 15-story external tank and twin solid rocket boosters last week, is in good shape to fly.

The vehicle has four contingency days before the Hubble payload is delivered to the pad on April 18. Then, there's no margin for error to maintain the launch date, Brewer said.

For the Hubble mission, Endeavour also must be prepared to fly as a rescue shuttle, because Atlantis would not be able to dock at the International Space Station in the event it suffered serious damage.

Endeavour is expected to roll over from its processing hangar to the assembly building April 10, and then out to launch pad 39B on April 17.

It likely will be the last time a shuttle rests on pad 39B, the more northern of the two shuttle launch sites.

After the Hubble mission, NASA plans to turn the pad over to the Constellation program so modifications can be made for a test flight this summer of the Ares I-X launch vehicle.

IMAGE NOTE: Click to enlarge any of the images of Atlantis rolling out today from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center. Source: NASA TV.