CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA
rolled the orbiter Atlantis from its processing hangar into the Kennedy Space
Center Vehicle Assembly Building Friday, finally getting enough of a break from
the remnants of Tropical Storm Fay to move the spaceship from one building to
another.
The quarter-mile move set
the stage for a huge milestone in just about seven days.
Mated with an external tank
and attached solid rocket boosters, the fully assembled shuttle will creep out
to launch pad 39A next weekend, in advance of NASA's fifth and final
Hubble Space Telescope service mission.
Tropical Storm Fay lingered
over Central Florida and soaked
KSC earlier the week, forcing NASA to close the nation's shuttle homeport
just as Atlantis was ready to roll over Tuesday.
More than a foot of rain
poured down on parts of KSC - much less than the 23 inches recorded on the
south end of neighboring Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
A damage assessment and
recovery team found no major damage when it surveyed the space center after the
storm passed Thursday.
"There are some broken
windows and there are some roof leaks," KSC spokesman Allard Beutel said.
"But nothing major was reported."
Atlantis and a crew of
seven astronauts are scheduled to blast off on Oct. 8 on a
mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
During an 11-day
mission, the astronauts will outfit the observatory to operate through at
least 2013.
Led by veteran astronaut
Scott Altman, the crew for the mission includes pilot Gregory Johnson and
mission specialists Andrew Feustal, Michael Good, John Grunsfeld, Michael
Massimino and Megan McArthur.
Atlantis will spend the
next week in the 52-story assembly building and engineers will make certain the
orbiter, the tank, the boosters and a mobile launcher platform all are
mechanically and electrically hooked up.
Atlantis likely will make
the 3.5-mile trip out to pad 39A next weekend.
The astronauts will fly to
KSC soon thereafter for a practice countdown and then return to Johnson Space
Center in Houston for final flight training.
Video
- Hubble Service Mission 4 Countdown
Video - Flame Trench Repair
NASA
Closes Florida Spaceport for Tropical Storm Fay
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