last night launch of a shuttle, 22nd night launch from launch pad 39A 2nd "descending node" entry since 2003 Shuttle processing Space Shuttle Discovery was moved from its hangar in the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) 3 to the nearby Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on February 22, 2010. The rollover was completed around 10:30 EST. According to NASA, the rollover occurred a day earlier than announced to take advantage of favorable weather in advance of poor conditions forecasted on the next day. An earlier plan to move Discovery into the VAB on February 12, 2010, was delayed because of cold weather at the Kennedy Space Center. For the rollover, temperatures in the VAB had to be above for more than twelve hours because Discovery was not attached to any heating purges to protect its systems from potential damage from the cold. Space Shuttle Discovery began its trip, known as the rollout, to LC-39A at 23:58 EST on March 2, 2010. The complete shuttle stack and mobile launcher platform were secured to the LC-39A structure at 6:49 EST on March 3, 2010. The trek took 6 hours 51 minutes to complete. The rollout was delayed 24 hours by the threat of lightning from a passing cold front. That weather moved away, and the stiff wind gusts blowing on Florida's Space Coast on the next day were not a factor for the rollout. Ahead of the rollout, engineers noticed some damage caused by birds to the External Tank (ET-135), which was repaired inside the VAB. Birds had managed to reach the tank, and pecked away at the Thermal Protection System (TPS) foam. Mission timeline April 5 (Flight Day 1 – Launch) Discovery lifted off successfully at 06:21 EDT, making this launch as the last night launch in the Space Shuttle program. After the 8 1/2-minute ride to space, Discovery'''s seven person crew began configuring the orbiter from a launch vehicle to an orbital vehicle. Commander Alan Poindexter and pilot Jim Dutton, with help from mission specialist 2 Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, also performed a series of engine firings or burns to adjust their speed and refine their path to the International Space Station. While the engine burns were going on, the rest of the crew opened the payload bay doors, set up the computers and Ku band antenna. The antenna suffered a failure during normal checkout and setup on orbit. Due to the failure, the