Discovery Prepares for Final Launch

Discovery Prepares for Final Launch

Last night, the Space Shuttle Discovery began its six hour crawl from the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center out to launch pad 39A. From there, the oldest Shuttle in the fleet will blast into low earth orbit for the last time.

On its final mission STS-133 will be delivering a “storage closet” module to the International Space Station. Also on board for delivery is Robonaut 2, a robot which will help the space station crew with tasks inside and outside of the ISS.

Discovery had rolled out to the pad back in September for a November launch, but issues with a hydrogen fuel leak sent the vehicle back to the VAB for repairs.

The entire shuttle fleet is scheduled to retire from service by the end of this year. NASA is planning two more launches, one by Endeavour and one by Atlantis, but the funding for the second flight has not yet been approved by the government.

If all goes as planned for this launch, Discovery will lift off on Feb. 24 at 4:50PM EST for a planned 11 days in orbit.