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Return to Flight Launch of Discovery

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida media snap photos of space shuttle Atlantis on Launch Pad 39A after the payload canister carrying the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module (MPLM) was lifted into the payload changeout room on the rotating service structure. Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim are targeted to lift off on space shuttle Atlantis July 8, taking with them the MPLM packed with supplies, logistics and spare parts to the International Space Station. The STS-135 mission also will fly a system to investigate the potential for robotically refueling existing satellites and return a failed ammonia pump module to help NASA better understand the failure mechanism and improve pump designs for future systems. STS-135 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/Kim Shiflett KSC-2011-4507

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Shadows spill across space shuttle Atlantis, still poised on the pad after its launch on mission STS-122 was postponed Thursday. In the background is the Atlantic Ocean. Shuttle program managers decided at 9:56 a.m. to postpone the launch because of an issue with a fuel cut-off sensor system inside the external fuel tank. This is one of several systems that protect the shuttle's main engines by triggering their shut down if fuel runs unexpectedly low. During countdown activities this morning, two sensors failed a routine prelaunch check. There are four engine cut-off, or ECO, sensors inside the liquid hydrogen section of the tank, and Launch Commit Criteria require three of the four sensor systems to be functioning properly. The tank's liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen was drained from the tank, and preparations will begin for a possible launch attempt Friday. NASA's launch rules have a preplanned procedure that states in the case of ECO sensor system failure, engineers need to drain the tank and verify all the sensors are working as they go dry. Atlantis carries the Columbus Laboratory, the European Space Agency's largest contribution to the construction of the space station. When permanently attached to Node 2, the laboratory will carry out experiments in materials science, fluid physics and biosciences, as well as perform a number of technological applications, in a microgravity environment. Photo credit: NASA/George Shelton KSC-07pd3583

STS-132 - Public domain NASA photogrpaph

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Space shuttle Endeavour leaps from orange-tinted smoke filling NASA Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A on the STS-127 mission. Liftoff was on-time at 6:03 p.m. EDT. This was the sixth launch attempt for the STS-127 mission. The launch was scrubbed on June 13 and June 17 when a hydrogen gas leak occurred during tanking due to a misaligned Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate. The mission was postponed July 11, 12 and 13 due to weather conditions near the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy that violated rules for launching, and lightning issues. Endeavour will deliver the Japanese Experiment Module's Exposed Facility and the Experiment Logistics Module-Exposed Section in the final of three flights dedicated to the assembly of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory complex on the International Space Station. Photo courtesy of Scott Andrews KSC-2009-4153

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Space Shuttle Endeavour begins its rapid climb toward space from Launch Pad 39A, trailing flame and smoke. Liftoff occurred at 2:40:42 p.m. EDT on the ninth flight to the International Space Station. The 11-day mission will deliver and integrate the Spacelab Logistics Pallet/Launch Deployment Assembly, which includes the Space Station Remote Manipulator System and the UHF Antenna. The mission includes two planned spacewalks for installation of the SSRMS on the Station. Also onboard is the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Raffaello, carrying resupply stowage racks and resupply/return stowage platforms KSC01padig200

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Bathed in bright xenon lights, space shuttle Discovery makes its nighttime trek, known as "rollout," from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It will take the shuttle, attached to its external fuel tank, twin solid rocket boosters and mobile launcher platform, about six hours to complete the move atop a crawler-transporter. Rollout sets the stage for Discovery's STS-133 crew to practice countdown and launch procedures during the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test in mid-October. Targeted to liftoff Nov. 1, Discovery will take the Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM) packed with supplies and critical spare parts, as well as Robonaut 2 (R2) to the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller KSC-2010-4713

STS-131 DISCOVERY AT PAD 39A AFTER ROLLOUT - HARDDOWN 2010-2059

STS-133 - Public domain NASA photogrpaph

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STS-127 Shuttle Endeavour is Prepared for Launch

STS-127 Shuttle Endeavour is Prepared for Launch

STS-127 Shuttle Endeavour is Prepared for Launch

STS-127 Shuttle Endeavour is Prepared for Launch

STS-127 Shuttle Endeavour is Prepared for Launch

STS-126 Space Shuttle Endeavour Launch

STS-127 Shuttle Endeavour Landing

STS-126 Space Shuttle Endeavour Launch

STS-127 Shuttle Endeavour Landing

STS-127 Shuttle Endeavour is Prepared for Launch

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Space shuttle Endeavour is in place at Launch Pad 39A, Friday, June 12, 2009 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Endeavour is undergoing final preparations for its upcoming 16-day mission to the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

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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12/06/2009
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label_outline Explore Sts 127 Preflight, Launch Pad 39 A, Ov 105

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Expedition 22 Launch Day. NASA public domain image colelction.

Expedition 35 Soyuz Rollout. NASA public domain image colelction.

S134E010220 - STS-134 - Flyaround View of the ISS taken after STS-134 Undocking

S134E006688 - STS-134 - Exterior view of ISS taken during STS-134 Approach

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A "towback" vehicle slowly pulls shuttle Endeavour from the Shuttle Landing Facility to Orbiter Processing Facility-1 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A purge unit that pumps conditioned air into a shuttle after landing is connected to Endeavour's aft end. In the background is the massive Vehicle Assembly Building. Once inside the processing facility, Endeavour will be prepared for future public display. Endeavour's final return from space completed the 16-day, 6.5-million-mile STS-134 mission. Main gear touchdown was at 2:34:51 a.m. EDT, followed by nose gear touchdown at 2:35:04 a.m., and wheelstop at 2:35:36 a.m. Endeavour and its crew delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 (AMS) and the Express Logistics Carrier-3 (ELC-3) to the International Space Station. AMS will help researchers understand the origin of the universe and search for evidence of dark matter, strange matter and antimatter from the station. ELC-3 carried spare parts that will sustain station operations once the shuttles are retired from service. STS-134 was the 25th and final flight for Endeavour, which spent 299 days in space, orbited Earth 4,671 times and traveled 122,883,151 miles. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller KSC-2011-4273

Photograph of a Rocket being Lifted onto the Launch Structure to be Prepared for Launch at the Wallops Island Launch Area in Virginia

S134E008196 - STS-134 - View of the Shuttle Endeavour docked to the ISS

S126E006653 - STS-126 - STS-126 Launch Preparations

STS077-393-025 - STS-077 - Astronaut Runco records PAMS/STU deployment from Spacehab

A Delta II rocket launches from Space Launch Complex Two at Vandenberg AFB, California, in the early morning hours carrying five Iridium satellites into polar orbit on the 11th of February 2002

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launch pad 39 a endeavour sts 127 preflight kennedy space center cape canaveral ov 105 hq nasa bill ingalls sts shuttle endeavour prepared launch space shuttle high resolution nasa