Timelapse video: The final space shuttle assembled for flight

Workers removed the protective wrap that has cocooned space shuttle Atlantis while its $100 million new home was built around it at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

A last-of-its-kind piece of space hardware — the only remaining shuttle external fuel tank — makes its way along the city streets of Los Angeles to the California Science Center.

Passing a major pre-flight milestone ahead of a launch and landing planned early Sunday, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket ignited its main engines Wednesday for a hold-down firing at Cape Canaveral.