The 3.4-mile (5.47 kilometers) journey aboard the massive crawler-transporter started at 8:47 a.m. EST (1347 GMT) and was expected to last about seven hours [image].
It was the 17th time in the 26-year-old shuttle program that one of the vehicles had to be moved back to the Vehicle Assembly Building from the launch pad.
Last week's hail storm caused thousands of dings [image] in the insulating foam covering Atlantis' external fuel tank and forced NASA to postpone the space shuttle's launch from March 15 to at least late April.
Once Atlantis is back inside, technicians will be able to assess whether the repairs to the tank can be made at the Kennedy Space Center or if the tank needs to be shipped back to its manufacturer near New Orleans, which likely would push back the launch to June.
From Space.com
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