KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - The STS-121 crew pause in their prelaunch activities to talk to the media, gathered at left. They are standing in the landing area of the slidewire baskets. The crew members facing them are (from left) Mission Specialists Thomas Reiter of Germany, who represents the European Space Agency, Piers Sellers, Stephanie Wilson, Commander Steven Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly, and Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak and Michael Fossum. The crew is at Kennedy for Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test activities. Over several days, the crew will practice emergency egress from the pad and suit up in their orange flight suits for the simulated countdown to launch. Space Shuttle Discovery is designated to launch July 1 on mission STS-121. It will carry supplies to the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-06pd1055
Summary
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - The STS-121 crew pause in their prelaunch activities to talk to the media, gathered at left. They are standing in the landing area of the slidewire baskets. The crew members facing them are (from left) Mission Specialists Thomas Reiter of Germany, who represents the European Space Agency, Piers Sellers, Stephanie Wilson, Commander Steven Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly, and Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak and Michael Fossum. The crew is at Kennedy for Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test activities. Over several days, the crew will practice emergency egress from the pad and suit up in their orange flight suits for the simulated countdown to launch. Space Shuttle Discovery is designated to launch July 1 on mission STS-121. It will carry supplies to the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
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.