WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

The orbiter Columbia, mated to its external tank and two solid rocket boosters, rolls out to Kennedy Space Centers (KSCs) Pad 39-B atop a mobile launcher platform (MLP). The entire complement of crawler transporter, MLP and Shuttle weigh in excess of 18 million pounds. The transporter moves at an average rate of less than one mile-per-hour with the Shuttle on top and uses a laser docking system to precisely position the MLP on the pad surface. A leveling system on the crawler transporter keeps the Shuttle perfectly stable during the roll out and during the climb up the 5 percent grade to the launch pad surface. Columbia is scheduled to launch on Nov. 19 for STS-87 on a 16-day flight of the United States Microgravity Payload (USMP)-4 mission. This mission also features the deployment and retrieval of the Spartan-201 satellite and a spacewalk to demonstrate assembly and maintenance operations for future use on the International Space Station.