Seeing double?
Atlantis and Endeavor prepped and ready to go
April 20, 2009 - For what may be only the fourth time in history, two space shuttles sat exposed on NASA's two launch pads at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida this weekend. The rare sight came to a close today, as each was covered by rotating sections of their pads' structures.
As spectacular as it may have been, NASA hopes it'll be the last such simultaneous view for the shuttles, although they have had that expectation before.
That there are two shuttles on two pads, visible or not, is in itself rare, occurring only 19 times over the past three decades. A prior double shuttle view in September 2008 was intended to be the last in the vehicles' history, but a failure aboard their mission's target resulted in the launch delay that led to this weekend's repeat rollout.