spacetoday.net: Atlantis rolled out to launch pad

Posted: Thu, Jan 4, 2001, 1:24 PM ET (1824 GMT)
The space shuttle Atlantis was moved to launch pad 39A Wednesday, a day later than planned after a transporter malfunctioned Tuesday. The shuttle, attached to its external tank and solid-propellant boosters, left the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at 10:21 am EST (1521 GMT) and arrived at the pad at 3:45 pm EST (2045 GMT). Rollout had been planned for Tuesday but was stopped shortly after the shuttle left the VAB when a computer system on the "crawler" transporter malfunctioned; a different transporter was used Wednesday. NASA still plans a launch "no earlier than" January 19 for mission STS-98, although a slip to the 20th is still possible because of the delayed rollout. The shuttle will deliver the Destiny lab module to the International Space Station during its 11-day mission.