KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Space Shuttle Endeavour, atop the mobile launcher platform, is hard down on Launch Pad 39A after rolling out overnight. First motion out of the Vehicle Assembly Building was at 8:10 p.m. July 10. The components of the shuttle are, first, the orbiter and then the solid rocket boosters flanking the external tank behind it. To the left of the shuttle is the rotating service structure, which can be rolled around to enclose the vehicle for access during processing. Behind it is the fixed service structure, topped by an 80-foot-tall lightning mast. Extending from it to Endeavour is the orbiter access arm, which provides access into the vehicle. Endeavour is scheduled to launch on mission STS-118 on Aug. 7. During the mission, Endeavour will carry into orbit the S5 truss, SPACEHAB module and external stowage platform 3. The mission is the 22nd flight to the International Space Station and will mark the first flight of Mission Specialist Barbara Morgan, the teacher-turned-astronaut whose association with NASA began more than 20 years ago. STS-118 will be the first flight since 2002 for Endeavour, which has undergone extensive modifications, including the addition of safety upgrades already added to orbiters Discovery and Atlantis. Photo credit: NASA/Ken Thornsley KSC-07pd1852
Summary
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Space Shuttle Endeavour, atop the mobile launcher platform, is hard down on Launch Pad 39A after rolling out overnight. First motion out of the Vehicle Assembly Building was at 8:10 p.m. July 10. The components of the shuttle are, first, the orbiter and then the solid rocket boosters flanking the external tank behind it. To the left of the shuttle is the rotating service structure, which can be rolled around to enclose the vehicle for access during processing. Behind it is the fixed service structure, topped by an 80-foot-tall lightning mast. Extending from it to Endeavour is the orbiter access arm, which provides access into the vehicle. Endeavour is scheduled to launch on mission STS-118 on Aug. 7. During the mission, Endeavour will carry into orbit the S5 truss, SPACEHAB module and external stowage platform 3. The mission is the 22nd flight to the International Space Station and will mark the first flight of Mission Specialist Barbara Morgan, the teacher-turned-astronaut whose association with NASA began more than 20 years ago. STS-118 will be the first flight since 2002 for Endeavour, which has undergone extensive modifications, including the addition of safety upgrades already added to orbiters Discovery and Atlantis. Photo credit: NASA/Ken Thornsley
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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