Article Posted on : - Sep 21, 2008

WASHINGTON, DC (BNS): After a gap of seven years, two space shuttles –Atlantis and Endeavour – are on the launch pads at the same time at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

Space Shuttle Atlantis is set to take off on October 10, to repair Hubble Space Telescope at the International Space Station (ISS). Shuttle Endeavour will be on standby at Launch Pad 39B. It will move to Launch Pad 39A for the STS-126 mission scheduled for November 12, only after the Atlantis launch is successful.

Endeavour started from Kennedy’s Vehicle Assembly Building at 11:15 pm on Thursday atop a massive crawler transporter. It reached Launch Pad 39B on Friday, at 6:59 am EDT, traveling at much less than a km per hour and covering a distance of around 6.7 km.