KSC-2009-4253

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – In the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the 250-ton high bay crane moves space shuttle Discovery toward the external fuel tank (foreground, left) and solid rocket boosters (lower right) in High Bay 1. The shuttle will be lowered into the bay and attached to the external tank and SRBs already stacked on the mobile launcher platform. Discovery is scheduled to roll out to Launch Pad 39A the first week of August to prepare for the STS-128 mission to the International Space Station. The shuttle will carry the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module containing life support racks and science racks and the Lightweight Multi-Purpose Experiment Support Structure Carrier in its payload bay. Launch of Discovery is targeted for late August. Photo credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky