The Nation - News from July 4, 1989

The space shuttle Columbia rolled closer to the launching pad and its secret mission for the Pentagon. Hours before dawn, workers at Kennedy Space Center in Florida towed America’s oldest orbiter into the huge Vehicle Assembly Building from a hangar where it has spent most of the last 3 1/2 years. Workers were to attach the fuel tank and twin booster rockets that will propel Columbia into space on its first mission since Jan. 10, 1986--the last flight before the Challenger disaster grounded the fleet. The shuttle is scheduled to make its eight-hour, four-mile crawl to the Kennedy Space Center launching pad Sunday.