NASA prepares to roll orbiter Discovery to launch pad

April 4, 2005 NASA has announced the planned rollout of the Shuttle Discovery from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to its launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. NASA is preparing the shuttle for its "Return to Flight" mission.

The rollout will take nearly 6 hours to cover the 4 mile stretch from the VAB to Launch Pad 39B and will begin at 12:01 a.m. EDT (04:01 UTC) on April 5. The fully assembled Space Shuttle Vehicle stack (orbiter, External Tank (ET) and twin Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs)) will be mounted on the Mobile Launcher Platform and delivered to the pad.

The Return to Flight mission is the 114th Space Shuttle flight, and the 31st flight of the orbiter Discovery.