Shuttle moving back to launch pad

Published: Jun 15, 2005
Source: news.bbc.co.uk



Space shuttle Discovery is making the four-mile journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building at Nasa's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to its launch pad.

It is being moved to pad 39B at the Florida launch complex on a "crawler" travelling at between 1.6 and 2.4km/h.

The roll-out began at 0658 BST and if all goes well, the shuttle should arrive at its launch pad by 1700 BST.

Discovery is due to lift off from Florida during a launch window that runs from 13 to the 31 July this year.

The shuttle has been grounded since the 2003 loss of Columbia and its crew of seven, an accident traced to technical as well as management failures.continue..