KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Space Shuttle Columbia emblazons the pre-dawn clouds as it soars into the sky on its 27th flight into space on mission STS-109. Liftoff occurred at 6:22:02:08 a.m. EST(11:22:02:08 GMT). The goal of the mission is the maintenance and upgrade of the Hubble Space Telescope, to be carried out in five spacewalks. The crew of STS-109 comprises Commander Scott D. Altman, Pilot Duane G. Carey, Payload Commander John M. Grunsfeld, and Mission Specialists Nancy Jane Currie, Richard M. Linnehan, James H. Newman and Michael J. Massimino. After an 11-day mission, Columbia is expected to return to Kennedy March 12 about 4:35 a.m. EST (09:35 GMT). [Photo by Anita Barrett] KSC-02pd0217
Summary
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Space Shuttle Columbia emblazons the pre-dawn clouds as it soars into the sky on its 27th flight into space on mission STS-109. Liftoff occurred at 6:22:02:08 a.m. EST(11:22:02:08 GMT). The goal of the mission is the maintenance and upgrade of the Hubble Space Telescope, to be carried out in five spacewalks. The crew of STS-109 comprises Commander Scott D. Altman, Pilot Duane G. Carey, Payload Commander John M. Grunsfeld, and Mission Specialists Nancy Jane Currie, Richard M. Linnehan, James H. Newman and Michael J. Massimino. After an 11-day mission, Columbia is expected to return to Kennedy March 12 about 4:35 a.m. EST (09:35 GMT). [Photo by Anita Barrett]
The Space Shuttle program was the United States government's manned launch vehicle program from 1981 to 2011, administered by NASA and officially beginning in 1972. The Space Shuttle system—composed of an orbiter launched with two reusable solid rocket boosters and a disposable external fuel tank— carried up to eight astronauts and up to 50,000 lb (23,000 kg) of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO). When its mission was complete, the orbiter would re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and lands as a glider. Although the concept had been explored since the late 1960s, the program formally commenced in 1972 and was the focus of NASA's manned operations after the final Apollo and Skylab flights in the mid-1970s. It started with the launch of the first shuttle Columbia on April 12, 1981, on STS-1. and finished with its last mission, STS-135 flown by Atlantis, in July 2011.
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