Discovery Shuttle Prepares to Roll Towards Launch Pad

Independent Safety Group Tackles Launch Waivers for Discovery's Flight

Suspended from an overhead crane in the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the orbiter Discovery is lowered toward the Solid Rocket Booster and External Tank (seen below) already stacked on the top of the Mobile Launcher Platform (MLP). (Image credit: NASA/KSC.)

NASA's space shuttle Discovery ispoised to make an ever-so-slow trek Tuesday morning to the launch pad where itwill rocket into orbit later this year.

Sitting inside the Vehicle AssemblyBuilding (VAB) at NASA's Kennedy Space Centerin Florida,Discovery is currently set to roll out to its launch pad at 6:00 a.m. EDT (1000GMT).

The ever-so-slow trek is a majormilestone in NASA's bid to return its shuttle fleet to flight since the loss ofColumbia andits crew in 2003. The Discovery orbiter will launch STS-114, a test flightcommanded by veteran astronaut Eileen Collins, which shuttle officialshope will prove the effectiveness of new tools and techniques aimed atimproving shuttle safety.

Discovery's STS-114 spaceflight is currentlyset to launch no earlier than May 15, though the mission has a launch windowthat is open through June 3. A second launch opportunity - currently allottedto the STS-121 mission aboard Atlantis - opens on July 12.

Both launch windows take into accountflight restraints that call for daylight liftoffs for NASA's first tworeturn-to-flight shuttle launches. The launch restraint is designed to providethe best observation opportunities to study the orbiter and its external tankduring ascent.

Tariq is the award-winning Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001. He covers human spaceflight, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. He's a recipient of the 2022 Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting and the 2025 Space Pioneer Award from the National Space Society. He is an Eagle Scout and Space Camp alum with journalism degrees from the USC and NYU. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.