This story was updated at 11:59 p.m. EDT.
The space shuttle Endeavour moved to
a new launch pad Thursday to gear up for a supply run to the International
Space Station next month.
The slow move began at 8:28 a.m. EDT
(1228 GMT) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral, Fla., with
engineers hauling Endeavour off its seaside Launch Pad 39B atop a 6
million-pound (2.7 million-kg) crawler carrier. The shuttle arrived at the
nearby launch Pad 39A at 4:40 p.m. EDT (2040 GMT) and is due to launch
to the space station on Nov. 14.
NASA calls the rare launch pad swap
a "roll around." Endeavour was scheduled to make the move on Saturday, but the
potential for lightning then prompted mission managers to switch launch pads
earlier, NASA officials said.
"This is only the third time we've
ever done a roll around," NASA spokesperson Candrea Thomas told SPACE.com
from KSC. The trip took about eight hours at the
carrier's plodding 1 mph (1.6 kph) pace.
Not since 1993 has a space shuttle
moved between launch pads. It was Endeavour then too, moving from Pad 39A to
39B for its STS-61 mission. The shuttle Columbia also moved from 39A to 39B in
1990 for its STS-35 mission, Thomas said. NASA is currently using Pad 39A as its main shuttle launch site while converting the other site for the use of its future Ares I rocket and Orion shuttle successor.
Endeavour has spent weeks atop
Launch Pad 39B on standby, where it was serving as
a rescue craft for its sister ship Atlantis' planned launch to the Hubble
Space Telescope.
Atlantis was slated to launch seven
astronauts toward Hubble on Oct. 14 to overhaul the space telescope for the fifth and final
time.
But that mission was delayed until next
February or later after Hubble suffered a debilitating glitch last month, when
a data relay channel failed. The 18-year-old observatory has been unable to
send the bulk of its data and iconic images of the universe ever since. Efforts
to switch to backup system last week have also
encountered glitches, though scientists hope resume science observations
this weekend.
With the Hubble mission delayed,
NASA moved up Endeavour's launch by two days to Nov. 14, with liftoff slated
for 7:55 p.m. EDT (0055 Nov. 15 GMT). Atlantis left its own Launch Pad 39A on
Monday and is currently parked inside NASA's cavernous, 52-story Vehicle
Assembly Building.
Commanded by veteran spaceflyer Chris
Ferguson, Endeavour's seven-astronaut crew will deliver a cargo pod full of
fresh supplies and new equipment to the three astronauts living aboard the
space station. Four spacewalks are planned for the mission, the bulk of them
aimed at greasing up a jammed solar array joint on the station's starboard
side.
During the planned 15-day mission,
Endeavour's STS-126 astronauts plan to install new sleeping quarters, exercise
and water recycling equipment, as well as a second kitchen and bathroom inside
the station. The new gear will prime the orbital outpost to jump from
three-person crews to a full, six-astronaut complement next year.
Endeavour will also ferry NASA
astronaut Sandy Magnus to the station, where she will replace fellow NASA
spaceflyer Greg Chamitoff as an Expedition 18 flight engineer. Chamitoff has
lived aboard the station since June. Magnus' replacement, Japanese astronaut
Koichi Wakata, is slated to arrive aboard NASA's shuttle Discovery early next
year.
But first, Endeavour has to settle
into its new Pad 39A launch site and receive its cargo pod Leonardo.
Thomas said the cargo pod, packed
with about 9 1/2 tons of supplies and equipment, will be installed on Sunday.
Ferguson and his STS-126 crew are on track for a launch day dress rehearsal next
week, she added.
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