Cape Canaveral (Florida): Space shuttle Discovery was hoisted by a crane and outfitted with its external fuel tank and twin booster rockets on Wednesday in preparation for another flight next month.
NASA plans a week of tests to make sure the electrical and mechanical connections are intact before the ship is hauled out to the launch pad, said Kennedy Space Center spokeswoman Jessica Rye.
The shuttle, which is due to return to space on December 7, will be taking another section of the half-built International Space Station's metal truss, or frame, into orbit.
It will be the second space station assembly flight since the US space agency resumed flying the shuttles after the 2003 Columbia disaster.
NASA needs 14 more flights to complete construction of the orbital research outpost. The agency has also slated two shuttle missions to carry heavy equipment and spare parts to the outpost and a final servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope before the shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.
Discovery made the quarter-mile trek from its processing hangar to NASA's massive Vehicle Assembly Building on Tuesday night after last-minute inspections of a cracked bracket on a door covering the main landing gear.
On Wednesday, crane operators raised the 122-foot- (37-meter) tall spaceship into a vertical position, lifted it up and over a support beam and gently set it down on the mobile launch platform.
Several hours later, Discovery was hooked up to its external fuel tank, which was previously outfitted with a solid rocket booster on each side.
Discovery's next move is a 4.2-mile (6.7-km) ride to the seaside launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center.
During the shuttle's planned 11-day mission, astronauts will install the station's new truss segment and rewire the station so it can make use of solar arrays installed by the last shuttle crew in September.
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