14 DAY TRIAL // The space shuttle Endeavor has been rolled out to its seaside launch pad yesterday, March 10. It is now ready for preparations and tests that are routinely conducted before each orbiter launch.
The vehicle is scheduled to take off from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) no sooner than April 19, NASA officials say. It is the youngest spacecraft in the United States shuttle fleet.
STS-134 will be the last mission Endeavor will ever fly. The vehicle will be headed for the International Space Station (ISS), where it will deliver the most expensive and complex science experiment every flown to orbit.
The shuttle's rollout maneuver, during which it was carried to Launch Pad 39A aboard the Crawler-Transporter vehicle and the Mobile Launch Platform, was attended by thousands of onlookers.
KSC employees were allowed to bring their families to the event, to bid Endeavor goodbye. NASA doesn't normally grant such permissions, but officials said they are making on exception for each orbiter's final flight.
This provides people who worked for more than three decades on the Space Shuttle Program with the opportunity to share the special work they have been doing for so long with their loved ones.
And the sight they experienced last night was truly breathtaking. The maneuver began at 7:56 pm EST (0056 GMT), and lasted for about six hours. The shuttle and its transporter were bathed in xenon light throughout the rollout process.
The shuttle was taken out from the 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), and had to travel about 3.4 miles (5.2 kilometers) to its launch pad. The move took about six hours to complete.
“It's a fun time. We get to view all the accomplishments and everything we've done, and the piece that we've been able to contribute to the shuttle program,” STS-134 mission flow director Dana Hutcherson told Space.
She added that more than 900 families of KSC employees – a total of more than 3,000 people – participated at the event, and got the chance to see live what others can only follow on NASA TV.
“It's been a joy working on Endeavor. Our team is really proud to be a part of just this one small part of the space shuttle legacy,” the NASA official went on to say.
The shuttle is carrying the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) particle detector to the ISS. The tool will be used to investigate dark matter and dark energy, by analyzing cosmic radiation that make their way into its sensitive detectors.
The experiment, worth $1.5 billion, will be attached on the exterior of the orbital facility.