The U.S. space shuttle Endeavour rolled out to its seaside launch pad in Florida early Wednesday, in preparation for the Aug. 7 launch to the International Space Station, according to NASA website updates.
The rollout began at 8:10 p.m. EDT Tuesday (0010 GMT Wednesday) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crawler-transporter carrying the massive shuttle assembly completed the 5.5-kilometer journey to the launch pad at approximately 2:30 a.m. EDT (0630 GMT) on Wednesday morning and was set up there half an hour later.
The mission, designated STS-118, will be NASA's second shuttle mission this year, but Endeavour's first flight in almost five years, according to NASA.
The last time Endeavour was at the launch pad was in November 2002 on a construction mission to the ISS.
During the scheduled 11-day mission, Endeavour will carry a new truss segment into orbit, the SPACEHAB module and external stowage platform 3, NASA said.
NASA hopes to complete the construction of the ISS before the shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.
Source: Xinhua
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