Almost Ready-To-Go For A Change

Space shuttle Atlantis was moved to its seaside launch pad on Saturday ahead of a December mission to get Europe's first permanent space laboratory into orbit, according to Reuters.

Riding on top of a 3,000-ton Apollo-era crawler transporter, Atlantis left the Kennedy Space Center's assembly building before dawn. The 3.8-mile trek took about five hours.

NASA has time to spare in its campaign to prepare the shuttle for the three-day launch countdown beginning on December 3. Officials are questioning whether the International Space Station will be ready for Atlantis' arrival. Astronauts in the ISS will have to relocate and outfit the newly arrived vestibule that will anchor Europe's Columbus laboratory and reinstall the shuttle's docking port.

On Friday, Peggy Whitson and  Yuri Malenchenko completed the first of three planned spacewalks needed before the new module, named Harmony, can be moved by the station's robotic crane. Harmony was delivered by the shuttle Discovery crew, which returned to Earth on Wednesday after a 15-day mission.

"I'm taking it one day at a time," flight director Derek Hassmann told reporters after the spacewalk, which he called "a huge step" toward launching Atlantis.

Already waiting at the launch pad for Atlantis was the lab named Columbus, Europe's primary contribution to the $100 billion, 16-nation space station project. The lab was set to be loaded into the shuttle's cargo bay last Sunday. Atlantis' crew, which includes two European astronauts Hans Schlegel of Germany and Leopold Eyharts of France, is scheduled to arrive in Florida next weekend for a launch rehearsal.

Eyharts will remain aboard the space station for an abbreviated two-month mission, replacing Tani, who arrived with the shuttle Discovery crew on October 25.

FMI: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/