spacetoday.net: Shuttle rolled out to launch pad

Posted: Fri, Nov 10, 2006, 7:26 AM ET (1226 GMT)
STS-116: rollout (NASA/KSC)

NASA moved the space shuttle Discovery to its launch pad on Thursday in preparation for its next mission in just under a month. Discover arrived at launch pad 39B just after 9 am EDT (1400 GMT) Thursday, a little less than nine hours after leaving the Vehicle Assembly Building. Discovery is scheduled to launch on mission STS-116, an ISS assembly flight, on the evening of December 7. Shuttle managers said Thursday that they have ruled out plans to move the launch up a day to December 6, saying they needed the extra day to complete crew training and develop software to prevent damage to the ISS's fragile solar panels by the exhaust plumes of shuttle thrusters. The shuttle needs to launch by about December 17 to avoid having the shuttle in orbit on New Years', when differences in date accounting systems between shuttle and ground computers could cause problems.