CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- In Orbiter Processing Facility-1 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, STS-135 Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim check out equipment they'll work with on their upcoming mission. The four-member crew is at Kennedy participating in the Crew Equipment Interface Test (CEIT), which gives them an opportunity for hands-on training with the tools and equipment they'll use and familiarization of shuttle Atlantis' payload they'll deliver to the International Space Station. Atlantis is being prepared for the STS-135 mission, which will deliver Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module packed with supplies and spare parts to the station. Atlantis is targeted to launch June 28, and will be the last shuttle flight for the Space Shuttle Program. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-2011-2782
Summary
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- In Orbiter Processing Facility-1 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, STS-135 Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim check out equipment they'll work with on their upcoming mission. The four-member crew is at Kennedy participating in the Crew Equipment Interface Test (CEIT), which gives them an opportunity for hands-on training with the tools and equipment they'll use and familiarization of shuttle Atlantis' payload they'll deliver to the International Space Station. Atlantis is being prepared for the STS-135 mission, which will deliver Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module packed with supplies and spare parts to the station. Atlantis is targeted to launch June 28, and will be the last shuttle flight for the Space Shuttle Program. 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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