KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - The payload on mission STS-113 rests inside Space Shuttle Endeavour's payload bay prior to closing of the doors. The 16th assembly flight to the International Space Station, STS-113 will carry the Port 1 (P1) truss aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour as well as the Expedition 6 crew, who will replace Expedition 5 on the Station. Mission STS-113 is scheduled to launch Nov. 10, 2002. KSC-02pd1623

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.

• STS-113 ペイロード