NASA’s Space Shuttle Minute. I’m Spencer Woodward and this is the Space Shuttle Minute, your sixty-second NASA space shuttle update. After space shuttle Endeavour rocketed into orbit March 11 on mission STS-123, the shuttle’s solid rocket boosters were recovered in the Atlantic Ocean. NASA’s special retrieval ships towed the reusable boosters to a hangar at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Endeavour will return to Kennedy Space Center the week of March 24, wrapping up a 16-day mission to the International Space Station.
A report posted on Feb. 25, 2008 to address the potential environmental impacts associated with the transition and retirement of the Space Shuttle Program.
May 3
Space shuttle Discovery made the long, slow trek out to Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The 3.4-mile trek is one of the last major milestones leading up to the launch of Discovery on the STS-124 mission. Launch is targeted for May 31.
Carried by the slow-moving crawler-transporter, the shuttle assembly and mobile launcher platform began rolling out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at 11:47 p.m. EDT Friday night and was secured at the pad at 6:06 a.m. on Saturday.
The canister carrying the STS-124 payloads arrived at the launch pad April 29. Primary payloads are the tour-bus-sized Japanese Experiment Module-Pressurized Module and the lab’s robotic arm system. The components will soon be installed in the orbiter’s payload bay.
The STS-124 crew members, commanded by astronaut Mark Kelly, are set to arrive at Kennedy on May 6 for the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test. The three-day event concludes May 9 with a full dress rehearsal of the launch countdown.