Shuttle Discovery Finally Makes Its Move To Assembly Building

The orbiter Discovery is in the Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building today after a long-delayed move that pushed back a planned March 18 launch by 18 days. But the winged spaceship now is firmly on track for launch on April 5.

"No issues to report on Discovery. She's in great shape," NASA Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach said earlier today. "She's been in waiting, kind of in the on-deck circle for a while. So she's ready to go."

Discovery rolled into the 52-story assembly building so it could be hoisted atop a mobile launcher platform and connected to an external tank with two attached solid rocket boosters.

A series of tests will be conducted over the next week to verify mechanical and electrical connections between the orbiter and the mobile launcher platform, external tank, and solid rocket boosters.

The fully assembled shuttle is scheduled to make the 3.5-mile trip out to launch pad 39A on March 2.

Astronauts who will fly onboard Discovery were on hand for the rollover from Orbiter Processing Facility Bay No. 3.

Left to right in this photo are mission specialist Rick Mastracchio, pilot James Dutton, mission commander Alan Poindexter, mission specialist Naoko Yamazaki of Japan Aersospace Exploration Agency, mission specialist Dorothy Metcalf-Lichtenburger and mission specialist Clayton Anderson. Not pictured is mission specialist Stephanie Wilson.

Discovery originally had been slated to move to the assembly building on Feb. 11. An unusual and long cold weather snap on Florida's Space Coast prevented the rollover. Cold temperatures could damage shuttle steering thruster seals and trigger leaks of toxic rocket propellant once the system is loaded up with hydrazine and nitrogen textroxide.

The mission will be the first of only four remaining flights before fleet retirement later this year. NASA's 131st shuttle mission will deliver research and science experiment equipment to the International Space Station along with a new sleeping area and supplies in a logistics module carried in Discovery's payload bay.

ABOUT THE IMAGES: Click to enlarge the Florida Today images captured by award-winning aerospace photographer Michael R. Brown. The images show Discovery as it entered the Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building after a rollover from Orbiter Processing Facility Bay No. 3. Photo credit: Michael R. Brown/Florida Today.