The US space shuttle Endeavour was rolled out Wednesday to its launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida ahead of liftoff slated for August 7, NASA said. Endeavour, attached to its external fuel tank flanked by two solid rocket boosters, was moved out of its hangar overnight for the more than six-hour trip over 5.5 kilometers (3.4 miles) to the launch pad on Florida's east coast.
The shuttle is scheduled to launch on August 7 to the International Space Station to continue construction of the orbiting manned laboratory.
During this mission, astronauts will deliver a 5,000 pound (2,267 kilogram) truss to be joined on the ISS's starboard side, along with an external stowage platform and a Spacehab module — a pressurized cargo carrier equipped to support shuttle experiment hardware.
Among the seven astronauts aboard the Endeavour will be mission specialist Barbara Morgan, who originally trained with NASA as the backup for Christa McAuliffe, a teacher who earned a place aboard the ill-fated Challenger which exploded just after launch in January 1986.
The Endeavour mission will be the second shuttle spaceflight this year and the 118th in the shuttle program.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration wants to keep up a steady schedule of flights to complete the construction of the ISS by 2010, after which the three-shuttle fleet will be retired.
