CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Space shuttle Atlantis held the spotlight late on Wednesday night into early Thursday morning as it rolled out of Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) in Florida, on its way to the launch pad for what is planned to be its last flight.

The black-and-white winged-orbiter, mounted to an orange external fuel tank and twin white solid rocket boosters, left the voluminous building — the largest one-story building in the world — just before midnight  atop a mobile launcher platform and crawler transporter tracked vehicle.