Discovery tonight is scheduled to make its final trip from the Vehicle Assembly Building to a Kennedy Space Center launch pad. The 3.4-mile "rollout" to pad is expected to begin at 8 p.m. atop a crawler-transporter.
The move comes more than four months after Discovery first rolled to the pad for its 39th and final flight.
But cracks were found in external tank support beams following a November launch scrub, and the ship in December returned to the assembly building for repairs and modifications.
You can watch the start of the misson's second rollout live here by clicking the NASA TV box at right. Several thousand center employees and family members have passes to cheer on Discovery from the space center.
Discovery and a crew of six are now targeting a Feb. 24 blastoff to the International Space Station.
IMAGE: At Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 20, 2010, shuttle Discovery begins its nighttime trek, known as "rollout," from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39A. Photo credit: NASA/Tony Gray
13 comments:
I am so glad to see her get ready for launch. My prayers go out to the Discovery and the Astronaut's and there family's I worked there for 10yrs and loved ever minute of it. I have a lot of signatures on my motorcycle of the Astronaut's and air brushed of the whole program from the begining.My
prayer's also go out to Commander Mark Kelly and there family's as well.
I wish them all well on the final mission of Discovery.She has been a great ship.
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