At the completion of testing and servicing in the OPF, the payload bay is closed and the Orbiter is towed to the VAB. The transfer will normally require less than an hour. No access or external power supply to the payload is planned after OPF close-out. Payload subsystems that need to operated continuously during this time (and until launch), such as vacuum or inertial sensing systems, require internal battery packs or special support. Support factors such as interior and exterior payloads purges, venting, and fluid requirements during transit must be identified early to your mission manager to allow for safety review and design lead time for necessary KSC support.
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