STS-134 rolled out to Launch Pad 39-A

UPDATE == March 28, 2011 … NASA now says, whether Congress funds the flight or not, that NASA will find the money to fly one additional shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) after STS-134’s scheduled launch in April 2011..

What may be the final launch in the American shuttle program moved a step closer overnight, March 10-11, 2011, when Endeavour was moved from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad. About sixty reporters and photographers covered the event from the 5th and 16th floors of the VAB, and from the press site across the street.

Endeavour departed from the bay on the far right of the VAB about 8 pm; Discovery departed in January for its final flight from the VAB other bay. This photo was taken at 10:18 pm, March 10, 2011. Endeavour is out of frame to the right, slowly progressing toward Pad 39-A where it was scheduled to arrive about 6 hours after leaving the VAB, or roughly about 2 am.

photograph by Carol Anne Swagler on behalf of The Grove Sun Daily / photo © 2011 Seine/Harbour® Productions, Studio City, California.

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Inside the Vehicle Assembly Building, January 31, 2011

NASA invited selected members of the press to record the Roll Out of the Shuttle Discovery from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39A on the night of January 31, 2011. This is a series of photos taken that evening, to include a small selection of a series taken on the 5th and 16th floors inside the VAB.

The Media Center at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. This is workspace and a general clearing house of data and information for the media. The Media Center is adjacent to a briefing room where commonly joint news conferences are held linking other NASA facilities, such as Johnson Space Center in Houston. Once a vehicle is launched from Kennedy, control passes during the mission to Houston.

Photographers and reporters are bused by NASA to events at KSC and are only allowed unescorted to a lunch room a short walking distance from the Media Site. The 25-35 photographers covering the Roll Out of Discovery on January 31, 2011, gathered at dusk and waited for security to inspect their equipment before being allowed to board the bus which shuttled them across the street to the VAB.

Yes, at the top center of this picture, you can see the bottom of the shuttle. Everything else is the crawler. On the ground floor of the VAB the photographers walked past the Crawler with Discovery on top on their way to elevators which carried them to higher floors and better vantage points. Photographers had to surrender their cellphones and car keys -- anything which sends an electronic signal -- and, if they wore glasses, had to secure their glasses with bands to the backs of their heads before boarding the elevators.

On the VAB's fifth floor, shown here, photographers were even with the top of the Crawler and the bottom of the shuttle Discovery. On the 16th floor they were even with the top of the main fuel tank. Photographers were free to move between these two floors as long as they were escorted and could walk within a few feet of the Crawler itself by going on walkways that led out over the VAB shuttle bay.

The tip of the main fuel tank is even with the 16th floor of the VAB. The VAB was built in 1966 for the Apollo Moon program which used much larger rockets. Although the shuttle and launcher only reach the 16th floor, the VAB itself continues on to the 37th floor, space that was needed in the 1960s and 1970s when NASA was sending missions to the Moon. The final mission to the Moon was in December 1972 and men have not returned there since, although it is thought that the Chinese will be establishing a permanent base on the Moon within the next decade.

Gone! The well lit Crawler and shuttle are in the distance viewed from the now empty shuttle bay which a half hour before the Crawler and shuttle had filled. The Crawler does not move fast (1 mile per hour), but it is steady. If you wanted to drive the Crawler to California, it would take 125 days driving day and night. NASA varies the events it offers the press. Besides periodic visits to the VAB, the Clean Room where shuttle missions are assembled, the astronaut dormitory and the launch pads, 39A and 39B, NASA also occasionally invites the media to walk the shuttle from the VAB to the launch pad or from the shuttle hangars to the VAB. Only one more shuttle mission is scheduled before the program ends and the shuttles are sent to museums.

photographs © 2011 by petecrow and by seine/harbour®productions, studio city, california

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STS-133 has returned to the Launch Pad

(<<< CLICK to ENLARGE — the thumbnail at left is a former blog header) Discovery, bathed in lights, is seen near center in long view against clear, black Florida night as she headed toward Launch Pad 39A at 9:10pm Monday, January 31, 2011. The Crawler, on which the shuttle rides, moves about a mile an hour on its best days. And the Crawler's mileage? If you have to ask, you can't afford one.

STS-133 Roll-Out to Launch Pad & Launch Update
Roll-Out from the Vehicle Assembly Building to 39A was completed overnight, January 31/February 1
Launch: No earlier than, Thursday, February 24, 2011.

Orbiter Discovery is shown exiting the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center on Monday night, January 31, 2011. Discovery, photographed from the 5th floor of the VAB, sits atop a massive Crawler. Barring a return to the VAB, as has already happened once in this second-to-last Shuttle mission, this was Discovery's final exit from the building. Discovery's mission is designated STS-133; the mission is scheduled for launch no earlier than February 24. == photo by petecrow

UPDATE / January 27, 2011 Thursday
Orbiter Discovery Roll-Out from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the Launch Pad overnight January 31-February 1 began about 8 pm and in the early hours of February 1. Generally Roll-Out takes about 6 hours.

Discovery has been to the pad for this launch before, but when cracks in the fuel tanks caused concerns, she was returned to the VAB.

The STS-133, Orbiter Discovery, launch was further re-scheduled on January 7, 2011, to no earlier than February 24 2011. No launch time has been designated for that date.

This is a further delay in this much delayed mission, and now moves this mission to 2011.

This is the second to last of the scheduled Shuttle launches. The original launch date for STS-133 was last summer; the most recent was February 3, 2011. The final mission, STS-134 has been scheduled for launch in March 2011. However, there may be one additional mission following STS-134 to provision the International Space Station — sometimes it is on; sometimes it is off.

Latest NASA launch schedules can be found HERE.

photo, peter michael crow for seine/harbour® productions, studio city, california, and for the grove sun daily, grove, oklahoma // © 2011 seine/harbour® productions and peter m crow

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