Space shuttle Discovery's external fuel tank is being prepared for computed radiography scans inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The shuttle stack, consisting of the shuttle, external tank and solid rocket boosters, was moved off Launch Pad 39A so technicians could examine 21-foot-long support beams, called stringers, on the outside of the tank's intertank and re-apply foam insulation.
Discovery's next launch opportunity to the International Space Station on the STS-133 mission is no earlier than Feb. 3, 2011. For more information on STS-133, visit www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts133/. Photo credit: NASA/Frankie Martin