KSC-05PD-1939

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Discovery begins rolling away from the mate_demate device on NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility. The equipment that lowered it to the ground has been removed. Discovery was returned to NASA Kennedy Space Center on a ferry flight atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft from Edwards Air Force Base in California, arriving Aug. 21. Visible on Discovery is the tail cone that covers and protects the main engines during the ferry flight. Discovery will be towed to the Orbiter Processing Facility where the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Raffaello still inside will be removed from the payload bay and transferred to the Space Station Processing Facility. The orbiter will then begin processing for the second Return to Flight mission, STS-121, scheduled for launch no earlier than March 2006.