
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. -- The Space Shuttle Discovery, atop the mobile launcher platform and crawler-transporter, begins the climb up the ramp to Launch Pad 39B. Traveling at 1 mph, the crawler-transporter takes about five hours to cover the journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad. Special levelers on the crawler-transporter keep the Space Shuttle vertical within plus or minus 10 minutes of arc about the dimensions of a basketball. Liftoff of Discovery on mission STS-96 is targeted for May 20 at 9:32 a.m. EDT. STS-96 is a logistics and resupply mission for the International Space Station, carrying such payloads as a Russian crane, the Strela; a U.S.-built crane; the Spacehab Oceaneering Space System Box (SHOSS), a logistics items carrier; and STARSHINE, a student-led experiment
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NASA ID
KSC-99pp0435
Date Created
April 26, 1999
Center
KSC
Media Type
image
Location
Kennedy Space Center, FL
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Medium
960px