Space shuttle Atlantis now is in the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Technicians began moving Atlantis from its hangar in Orbiter Processing Facility-1 to the VAB at about 7 a.m. EDT. The move, known as rollover, was competed at 8:25 a.m. when Atlantis arrived in the VAB’s transfer aisle.
The sling that will transfer Atlantis over to the VAB’s High Bay 1 is set to be attached this afternoon. Atlantis will be lifted up and moved over the transom by this evening, and is scheduled to be firmly attached to its external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters on the mobile launcher platform by tomorrow morning.
Atlantis is on track to be rolled out to Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39A on Oct. 13 in anticipation of its STS-129 mission to the International Space Station, targeted to launch Nov. 12.
Today, the mission’s six astronauts are involved in a number of systems refresher meetings at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.