Shuttle gear bound for SSC

The 266-foot-long Pegasus barge, used to transport space shuttle external tanks from Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans, to Kennedy Space Center, Fla., is on its way to NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss. Pegasus, which will arrive at SSC Nov. 16 after a 900-mile journey, is carrying space shuttle main engine ground support equipment. The NASA barge and shuttle equipment will remain in storage at SSC until final disposition is determined. Pegasus left Kennedy manned by a crew of four and towed by NASA's space shuttle solid rocket booster recovery ship Freedom Star. The barge sailed 41 times between 1999 and 2011 for the shuttle program. The shuttle main engine ground support equipment was used at Kennedy to install shuttle engines into orbiters. The Kennedy shop where the equipment was stored is among the facilities turned over to Space Florida for future use by Boeing, which plans to use the facility to build its CST-100 commercial crew capsule. The shuttle main engines will be used in the Space Launch System engine testing program. (Source: Space Ref, Florida Today, 11/10/11) Previous story