CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – On Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, workers talk to the driver of the rotating service structure, or RSS, before it is moved around space shuttle Endeavour. The RSS provides protected access to the shuttle for changeout and servicing of payloads at the pad. The structure is supported by a rotating bridge that pivots about a vertical axis on the west side of the pad's flame trench. The RSS rotates through 120 degrees (one-third of a circle) on a radius of 160 feet. Support for the outer end of the bridge is provided by two eight-wheel, motor-driven trucks that move along circular twin rails installed flush with the pad surface. The track crosses the flame trench on a permanent bridge. Endeavour is targeted to launch June 13 on its STS-127 mission to the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA/Tim Jacobs KSC-2009-3353
Summary
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – On Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, workers talk to the driver of the rotating service structure, or RSS, before it is moved around space shuttle Endeavour. The RSS provides protected access to the shuttle for changeout and servicing of payloads at the pad. The structure is supported by a rotating bridge that pivots about a vertical axis on the west side of the pad's flame trench. The RSS rotates through 120 degrees (one-third of a circle) on a radius of 160 feet. Support for the outer end of the bridge is provided by two eight-wheel, motor-driven trucks that move along circular twin rails installed flush with the pad surface. The track crosses the flame trench on a permanent bridge. Endeavour is targeted to launch June 13 on its STS-127 mission to the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA/Tim Jacobs
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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