The space
shuttle Discovery rolled out to its Florida launch pad Tuesday in an arduous, slow trek
made even slower by brilliant lightning flashes and soggy mud.
Engineers began moving Discovery out to the seaside Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center
before dawn Tuesday to begin priming the shuttle for its planned Aug. 25 launch
toward the International Space Station. Distant lightning lit up the sky above
the Cape Canaveral spaceport, providing a stunning backdrop for the shuttle's
plodding move.
The trip
normally takes about six hours, but weather-related concerns pushed Discovery's
slow move beyond the 11-hour mark.
Stormy,
soggy weather
NASA initially
delayed Discovery's trip by nearly two hours in order to keep shuttle
technicians inside and safe from potential lightning strikes at the launch
site. By 2:07 a.m. EDT (0607 GMT), it was safe to begin moving Discovery but sticky
mud from recent thunderstorms forced engineers to stop repeatedly to clean the
giant treads of NASA's 5.5 million-pound (2.4 million-kg) Apollo-era crawler
carrier vehicle that hauls shuttles out to the launch pad.
"We had
torrential rain here yesterday evening," NASA spokesperson Allard Beutel told
SPACE.com from the spaceport. "It rained for hours ... so it was pretty soggy."
Despite the
lightning and mud delays, shuttle technicians were more concerned about moving
Discovery to the launch pad ahead of stormy weather that was expected to hit the
spaceport Tuesday afternoon.
A tall
lightning mast and shell-like protective structure at the launch pad can guard
shuttles against lightning and stormy weather, but the spacecraft and their
support crews are exposed to the elements when they make the short 3.2-mile (5-km)
trek from NASA's massive Vehicle Assembly Building and Pad 39A.
Bolts of lightning struck
11 times near the shuttle launch pad last month, causing one of a series of delays
for Discovery's sister ship Endeavour. That shuttle ultimately launched to the
International Space Station on July 15 and landed July 31.
COLBERT
aims for space
Commanded
by veteran astronaut Rick Sturckow, Discovery is slated to fly a 13-day
mission to replace one member of the space station's six-person crew and
deliver new supplies and experiments. Three spacewalks are planned to upgrade the
station's cooling system and European Columbus laboratory.
The shuttle
will also deliver the station's new COLBERT treadmill, which is named after
comedian Stephen Colbert, when it arrives at the space station.
Sturckow
and his crew will arrive at the Kennedy Space Center Wednesday to begin a
three-day training session that will end with a launch dress rehearsal and shuttle
escape drill on Friday. Meanwhile, shuttle engineers plan to replace a
faulty valve on Discovery's left solid rocket booster over the next week.
"We have no
margin, no cushion, in the schedule at all," said Beutel, adding that there is
a possibility Discovery may be ready to fly on Aug. 24.
NASA has
until Aug. 30 to launch Discovery before it would stand down to late September
due to a conflict with a new Japanese cargo ship test. Japan's first H-2
Transfer Vehicle, an unmanned space freighter, is slated to begin its maiden
flight to the space station on Sept. 10.
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