KSC-2011-5609

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Mobile Launcher Platform-3 (MLP), which supported space shuttle Atlantis for its final flight to the International Space Station on the STS-135 mission, is making its last journey from Launch Pad 39A into the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) atop a massive crawler-transporter. For more than 40 years, the MLPs have traveled between the VAB to both launch pads at Launch Complex 39, and then returned to the VAB for future use. MLP-3 was first used to launch Columbia on the STS-32 mission on Jan. 9, 1990. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann