KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- STS-116 Pilot William Oefelein (left) and Mission Specialist Christer Fuglesang are greeted by Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach (right) at the Shuttle Landing Facility. The STS-116 crew has returned to KSC for the terminal countdown demonstration test, which are pre-launch preparations that include a simulated launch countdown. The crew also includes Commander Mark Polansky, Mission Specialists Nicholas Patrick, Robert Curbeam, Joan Higginbotham and Flight Engineer Sunita Williams, joining Expedition 14 in progress. The mission is No. 20 to the International Space Station and construction flight 12A.1. The mission payload is the SPACEHAB module, the P5 integrated truss structure and other key components. Launch is scheduled for no earlier than Dec. 7. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-06pd2509
Summary
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- STS-116 Pilot William Oefelein (left) and Mission Specialist Christer Fuglesang are greeted by Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach (right) at the Shuttle Landing Facility. The STS-116 crew has returned to KSC for the terminal countdown demonstration test, which are pre-launch preparations that include a simulated launch countdown. The crew also includes Commander Mark Polansky, Mission Specialists Nicholas Patrick, Robert Curbeam, Joan Higginbotham and Flight Engineer Sunita Williams, joining Expedition 14 in progress. The mission is No. 20 to the International Space Station and construction flight 12A.1. The mission payload is the SPACEHAB module, the P5 integrated truss structure and other key components. Launch is scheduled for no earlier than Dec. 7. 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.
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