Final 10-mile trek for space shuttle Atlantis

The mastermind behind Atlantis‘ slow march through Kennedy was sweating bullets nonetheless.

“It’s only a priceless artifact driving 9.8 miles and it weighs 164,000 pounds,” said Tim Macy, director of project development and construction for Kennedy’s visitor complex operator, the company Delaware North.

“Other than that, no pressure at all,” Macy said, laughing. “Only the eyes of the country and the world and everybody at NASA is watching us.”

The relocation of Atlantis was plotted out for months, he noted last week, and experienced shuttle workers took part.

The roundabout loop took Atlantis past Kennedy’s headquarters building for a midmorning ceremony that drew several thousand past and present employees, and their guests, as well as a few dozen astronauts. A high school color guard and band led the way.

The mood was more upbeat than when the trip began four hours earlier and resembled a funeral procession. NASA officials went out of their way to emphasize the space agency’s future.

“It’s an incredibly historic day,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr., a former skipper of Atlantis. “But I don’t preside over an agency that’s in the history business. … We’re in the business of creating the future.”

Bolden proudly cited NASA’s new target destinations for astronauts _ an asteroid and Mars _ and he hailed the successful start to commercial supply missions to the International Space Station.

The next stop for Atlantis, meanwhile, was a still-under-design industrial park that offered a few hours of public viewing in the afternoon. Tourist tickets ran as high as $90 apiece for a chance to see the spaceship up close.

Crews removed 120 light poles, 23 traffic signals and 56 traffic signs in order for Atlantis to squeeze by. One high-voltage power line also had to come down. Staff trimmed back some scrub pines, but there was none of the widespread tree-axing that occurred in Los Angeles.

Atlantis had to traverse just one noticeable incline, a highway ramp. The rest of the course is sea-level flat.

Tourists jammed the public portion of Atlantis‘ route. Patricia LeBlanc, visiting from Orlando with her daughter, said she misses the shuttle launches. Thirteen-year-old Ashley Gest, waiting in line for astronaut autographs with her Ormond Beach family, was excited to see Atlantis but expressed sadness, too.

The grand entrance into Atlantis‘ new home went just as smoothly Friday evening and attracted a huge crowd. One complete wall of the exhibit hall was kept off, carport-style, so the shuttle could roll right in. Construction will begin on the missing wall early next week.

Once safely inside, Atlantis will be plastic-wrapped for protection until the building is completed. The grand opening is set for July 2013. Delaware North is footing the entire $100 million exhibit cost.

Discovery, the oldest and most-traveled space shuttle, was the first to leave Kennedy, zooming off to the Smithsonian in northern Virginia in April atop a modified jumbo jet. The shuttle prototype Enterprise went from the Smithsonian to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City; NASA confirmed Friday that Enterprise suffered minor damage to its vertical tail due to Superstorm Sandy earlier this week.

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