Endeavour is Back on the Pad

By Fraser Cain - July 11, 2007 at 4:04 PM UTC | Space Exploration
2007-0711shuttle.thumbnail-3.jpg

It seemed like only yesterday that

Atlantis

wrapped up mission STS-117, and already, the next shuttle is sitting on pad, ready to return to the International Space Station. Okay, so Atlantis actually landed last month, but still, NASA is clearly making its way through the schedule with a sense of urgency.

Next up, the space shuttle

Endeavour

, which made its journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building out to Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. It started the journey at 8:10pm EDT July 11, mounted atop the slow-moving crawler-transporter, and arrived at its final destination (5.4 km) 3.4 miles away at the launch pad 6 hours later.

If all goes well,

Endeavour

will blast off on August 7th, carrying the S5 truss, SPACEHAB module and stowage platform 3 to the International Space Station.

NASA Shuttle Site

Fraser Cain

Fraser Cain

Fraser Cain is the publisher of Universe Today, founding the website in March 1999. He's also the co-host of Astronomy Cast.