KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In the Vehicle Assembly Building, overhead cranes are lowered toward the orbiter Columbia. The cranes will lift the orbiter to a vertical position for stacking with the external tank and solid rocket boosters. Columbia is scheduled to be launched Feb. 28 on mission STS-109, a Hubble Servicing Mission. The goal of the mission is to service the HST, replacing Solar Array 2 with Solar Array 3, replacing the Power Control Unit, removing the Faint Object Camera and installing the ACS, installing the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) Cooling System, and installing New Outer Blanket Layer insulation
Location Kennedy Space Center, FL
Date January 16, 2002