Sep 21, 2010 06:25 GMT  ·  By
Discovery is seen in this image sitting aboard the Crawler-Transporter vehicle
   Discovery is seen in this image sitting aboard the Crawler-Transporter vehicle

Last night, at 7:23 pm EDT (2323 GMT), the space shuttle Discovery began its final rollout ever planned, from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the Launch Pad 39 A at the Kennedy Space Center.

More than 700 workers from the center were sent invitations to bring their families along, to celebrate the last time this orbiter is planned to exit the VAB in anticipation of a trip to space.

The spacecraft was eventually docked to its launch pad after completing the 5.5-kilometer (3.4-mile) trek separating it from its targets.

The rollout maneuver took place about six weeks before Discovery's planned November 1 launch, which will see it head to the International Space Station (ISS) once more.

“This is most likely Discovery's last rollout to the launch pad, so a very momentous occasion for us, but also a very emotional one for a lot of folks,” explains official Stephanie Stilson for Space.

“There's a lot of excitement, but also a little bit of sadness over the fact that this will probably be the last one,” adds Stilson, who is the vehicle flow manager for the space shuttles.

Over the 26 years since Discovery has been in service, it has carried out more rollout maneuvers than launches. The first round trip took place in July 1984, when a failure prompted NASA to take Discovery back to its hangar again.

In total, the shuttle has been detoured from the launch pad four times ahead of launches, due to various technical issues that arose with the orbiter.

Currently, it is being readied for flying a new Multi Purpose Logistics Module to the ISS. This is a storage compartment that will be added to the orbital facility, and boost storing space there.

Additionally, Discovery will also carry the Robonaut-2 robot, which was developed by experts at NASA in collaboration with scientists at General Motors.

After Discovery returns from 11-day trek to the ISS, only a single other space shuttle mission is planned to take place in the future.

The orbiter Endeavor will take off in February 2011, for the STS-134 flight. It will also be heading to the ISS, carrying a complex dark matter experiment, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.

At this point, Congress is discussing the possibility of sanctioning a new mission to the ISS, which would be flown in June 2011 aboard Atlantis, but no clear decision has yet been made.