Mounted atop a specialized transporter, space shuttle Discovery is all set for a short drive Wednesday morning to the Vehicle Assembly Building where it will be joined to a waiting set of two solid rocket boosters and a fuel tank. The move, known as "rollover" to the NASA Kennedy Space Center community of space workers, is slated to begin at 6:30 a.m. when Discovery is carefully backed out of Orbiter Processing Facility-3. The 76-wheeled transport will then truck the spacecraft across a wide, concrete road and into the VAB, where a skilled team of technicians will bolt a huge sling to the orbiter so it can be safely lifted and joined to the boosters and tank.
While their spacecraft undergoes preparations in Florida, the astronauts who will fly Discovery to the International Space Station will be practicing for their arrival in space. Training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the crew will conduct a suited post-insertion simulation today.