spacetoday.net: Discovery rolls back to pad

Posted: Tue, Feb 1, 2011, 7:04 AM ET (1204 GMT)
STS-133: second rollout (NASA)

The space shuttle Discovery rolled out to the pad Monday night in preparation for its long-delayed final flight to the International Space Station. Discovery left the Vehicle Assembly Building just before 8 am EST Monday (0100 GMT) and arrived at Pad 39A about seven hours later. This is the second time Discovery has been rolled out to the pad in preparation for launch on mission STS-133, after an earlier rollout in September; a planned early November launch was scrubbed by a variety of issues, and the orbiter had to be returned to the VAB to complete inspection and repairs of cracked stringers on its external tank. Discovery is now slated for launch at 4:50 pm EST (2050 GMT) February 24.