Space shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to roll out to Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, September 18th, in preparation for shuttle Atlantis' mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. Endeavour will stand by in the unlikely event a rescue mission is necessary following
Atlantis' launch, which is targeted for October 10th. After Endeavour is cleared from its duty as a rescue vehicle, it will move to
Launch Pad 39A for the upcoming
STS-126 mission to the
International Space Station. That flight is targeted for launch November 12th. Last Thursday, Endeavour rolled over from Kennedy's
Orbiter Processing Facility to the
Vehicle Assembly Building where Endeavour will be attached to its external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters to
prepare for its move to the pad. The first motion of the shuttle toward the launch pad on September 18th is scheduled for 12:01 a.m. EDT. The fully assembled space shuttle, consisting of the orbiter, external tank, and twin solid rocket boosters, will be delivered to the pad atop a crawler-transporter. The crawler will travel slower than 1 mph during the 4.2-mile journey. The process is expected to take approximately seven hours.
NASA Television will provide live coverage of Endeavour's rollout to the launch pad beginning at 6:30 a.m. September 18th.
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