Discovery Shuttle May Roll Back to Pad Early, NASA Says

NASA's Crawler/Transporter hauls the space shuttle Discovery's launch stack back to the Vehicle Assembly Building on May 26, 2005. The combined weight of the crawler, shuttle stack and its Mobile Launch Platform totals about 18 million pounds and makes for slow driving. CREDIT: NASA/KSC.

CAPE CANAVERAL - Shuttle Discovery is to be separated from its fuel tank and rocket boosters this morning, after its rollback last week to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center.

Though the maneuver was behind schedule, the shuttle could return to the launch pad earlier than thought, a spokeswoman said.

The shuttle was rolled back from the launch pad so it could be mated with a modified tank originally scheduled to fly with Atlantis.

Lightning storms halted crane operations inside the vast assembly building Wednesday.

The safety precaution slowed workers' efforts to "de-mate" the orbiter from its external fuel tank and boosters.

"They lifted the sling this morning, and they're working on attaching the sling to Discovery," NASA spokeswoman Jessica Rye said Wednesday.

Discovery is scheduled to be mated with its new tank around June 7, then roll out to the launch pad -- again -- on June 14.

But despite the delays this week, it may be able to mate and move a couple of days earlier than planned, Rye said.

Final wire routing and spraying of insulating foam is taking place on the fuel tank that will fly with Discovery, she said.

The tank has a new heater designed to prevent buildup of ice during fueling with supercold propellants. Ice can fly off the tank during launch and damage the orbiter.

NASA anticipates Discovery will fly in a launch window that extends from July 13 to July 31.

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