CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space shuttle Atlantis' STS-135 crew participates in a crew equipment interface test, or CEIT, in the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The purpose of CEIT is for flight crew members to become familiar with the hardware and tools they will work with in space. Standing in front of the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module, which will be packed with supplies, logistics and spare parts for their mission to the International Space Station, are, from left, Pilot Doug Hurley, Mission Specialists Rex Walheim and Sandy Magnus, and Commander Chris Ferguson. STS-135 also will return a failed ammonia pump module on the Lightweight Multi-Purpose Experiment Support Structure Carrier, or LMC, to help NASA better understand the failure mechanism and improve pump designs for future systems. STS-135, targeted to launch June 28, will be the 33rd flight of Atlantis, the 37th shuttle mission to the space station, and the 135th and final mission of NASA's Space Shuttle Program. For more information visit, www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts135/index.html. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann KSC-2011-3254
Summary
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space shuttle Atlantis' STS-135 crew participates in a crew equipment interface test, or CEIT, in the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The purpose of CEIT is for flight crew members to become familiar with the hardware and tools they will work with in space. Standing in front of the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module, which will be packed with supplies, logistics and spare parts for their mission to the International Space Station, are, from left, Pilot Doug Hurley, Mission Specialists Rex Walheim and Sandy Magnus, and Commander Chris Ferguson. STS-135 also will return a failed ammonia pump module on the Lightweight Multi-Purpose Experiment Support Structure Carrier, or LMC, to help NASA better understand the failure mechanism and improve pump designs for future systems. STS-135, targeted to launch June 28, will be the 33rd flight of Atlantis, the 37th shuttle mission to the space station, and the 135th and final mission of NASA's Space Shuttle Program. For more information visit, www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts135/index.html. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann
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.
Nothing Found.