Shuttle Discovery to Leave Hangar Early

The space shuttle Discovery's payload bay doors are closing as the orbitered is prepared to rollover to the Vehicle Assembly Building no earlier than May 12 for final processing and stacking. CREDIT: NASA/Amanda Diller.

CAPE CANAVERAL - Discovery will move into Kennedy Space Center's massive assembly building this week, marking a key milestone in preparations for a planned July 1 launch on NASA's second post-Columbia shuttle mission.

Secured atop a 76-wheel transporter, Discovery will be backed out of a nearby hangar about 8 a.m. Thursday and escorted to the 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building by technicians and engineers who have readied the orbiter for flight.

"It's always nice when the vehicle leaves the hangar," said KSC spokeswoman Jessica Rye.

The date and time for the move was selected after a meeting Monday. It had been planned for Friday; if all goes well, the move will take place 24 hours ahead of schedule.

The short trip will cap a 263-day stay in the hangar, one that began Aug. 22 after Discovery was ferried back to KSC from Edwards Air Force Base in California.

The spaceship landed at the Mojave Desert military base at the end of NASA's first post-Columbia test flight and then was flown back to Florida atop a modified 747 jumbo jet.

Once in the assembly building, crane operators will hoist Discovery atop a mobile launcher platform and connect it to an external tank with two attached solid rocket boosters.

The assembled shuttle remains scheduled to roll out to launch pad 39B on May 19.

A move to the pad then would allow NASA to preserve two weeks of leeway in the schedule for a July 1 launch. The launch window will close July 19.

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