NASA moved one step closer to returning to space Thursday with the arrival of the shuttle Discovery at its launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center.
The crawler carrying the shuttle reached the pad after a ten-hour trip that was delayed briefly by the discovery of a crack in the external fuel tank’s foam insulation.
The Discovery is due to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in May or early June.
It will be the first shuttle mission since the Columbia broke apart on reentry two years ago.
The Columbia disaster was later blamed on a chunk of foam that fell off the tank during liftoff and gashed one of the wings.
However, NASA says the small hairline crack found Wednesday is no reason for concern and it does not need to repair it.
