NASA's
Discovery space shuttle hits the assembly room floor in the next step in its
return to flight.
Hitting a
major milestone in NASA’s efforts to return its shuttle fleet to flight status,
Discovery rolled out of its Orbiter Processing Facility in the early morning on
March 29. Shuttle engineers and technicians hoisted the orbiter onto a 76-wheeled
transport carrier, then rolled it into NASA’s hulking, 52-story Vehicle
Assembly Building (VAB).
This image,
taken by Ben Cooper of CollectSPACE.com, shows a front view of Discovery
after its early-morning move into the VAB.
Over the
next week, shuttle engineers are expected to lift Discovery into a vertical
position and integrate it with its external tank and solid rocket boosters
before rolling the entire assembly out to the launch pad.
Discovery
is slated to be NASA’s first shuttle to fly since the loss of Columbia. Its
STS-114 mission, commanded by veteran astronaut Eileen Collins, is expected to
test a series of new methods and tools to enhance shuttle safety. Collins and
the rest of STS-114’s seven-astronaut crew is currently scheduled to launch no
earlier than May 15, 2005.
-- SPACE.com Staff
Credit: Ben Cooper/CollectSPACE.com.
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