The start of mission STS-116 is a step closer after Space Shuttle Discovery
rolled out to its seaside launch pad in the early morning of November ninth.
Discovery is set to lift off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the first part of December.
Its destination: the International Space Station.
On the upcoming mission, astronauts will install a small truss segment and rewire the lab's power system.
The rollout to the pad follows time spent inside Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly
Building attaching the orbiter to its rocket boosters and orange fuel tank.
Shortly after midnight, a crawler transporter eased
Discovery out of the amber glow of the building and into the starlit night.
Trundling along at a careful one mile an hour, the transporter took
nearly eight-and-a-half hours to carry Discovery to Launch Pad 39B.
During the twilight hours, Discovery's launch platform and tank-like carrier
lit the way as the shuttle made the four-mile journey.
The final push came as the diesel-powered crawler carried the 12-million-pound
ship up a ramp to the top of the pad for the upcoming launch.