KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The orbiter Discovery reaches its destination, the transfer aisle of the Vehicle Assembly Building. There it will be lifted to vertical , then raised and moved to high bay 3 for mating with the external tank and solid rocket boosters. Discovery is scheduled to launch Oct. 5 at 9:30 p.m. EDT on mission STS-92, delivering two elements of the International Space Station: the Z-1 truss and Pressurized Mating Adapter-3. The launch will be the 100th flight in the Shuttle program KSC-00pp1204

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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- After a three-day trip from California, the shuttle carrier aircraft, or SCA, and its piggyback passenger Atlantis land on the KSC Shuttle Landing Facility runway. Touchdown was at 8:27 a.m. EDT. The SCA is a modified Boeing 747 jetliner. Atlantis landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California to end mission STS-117. The return to KSC began July 1 and took three days after stops across the country for fuel. The last stop was at Ft. Campbell in Kentucky. Weather conditions over the last leg postponed the return trip until July 3. Atlantis will be removed from the back of the SCA via the mate/demate device at the SLF. It will then be towed to the Orbiter Processing Facility to begin processing for its next launch, mission STS-122 in December. Photo credit: NASA/Ken Thornsley KSC-07pd1736

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The space shuttle Atlantis meets sister shuttle Endeavour in the background for a brief photo opportunity at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Endeavour moved from Bay 2 of the Orbiter Processing Facility to switch places with Atlantis which had been in Vehicle Assembly Building VAB. In the VAB, Endeavour will undergo final preparations for its cross-country ferry flight targeted for mid-September. The work is part of Transition and Retirement of the remaining space shuttles, Endeavour and Atlantis. Endeavour is being prepared for public display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Endeavour was the last space shuttle added to NASA’s orbiter fleet. Over the course of its 19-year career, Endeavour spent 299 days in space during 25 missions. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/transition. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis KSC-2012-4486

Morning shadows frame the orbiter Discovery on its rollover from the Orbiter Processing Facility Bay 2 to the Vehicle Assembly Building. The orbiter displays the recently painted NASA logo, termed the "meatball," on its left wing and both sides of the fuselage. Discovery (OV-103) is scheduled for its 25th flight, from Launch Pad 39B, on Oct. 29, 1998, for the STS-95 mission KSC-98pc1064

STS-130 - Public domain NASA photogrpaph

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA, is parked on the apron of the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida with space shuttle Endeavour secured on its back. The SCA, a modified 747 jetliner, will fly Endeavour to Los Angeles where it will be placed on public display at the California Science Center. This is the final ferry flight scheduled in the Space Shuttle Program era. For more information on the shuttles' transition and retirement, visit http://www.nasa.gov/transition. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis KSC-2012-5259

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The orbiter Discovery reaches its destination, the transfer aisle of the Vehicle Assembly Building. There it will be lifted to vertical , then raised and moved to high bay 3 for mating with the external tank and solid rocket boosters. Discovery is scheduled to launch Oct. 5 at 9:30 p.m. EDT on mission STS-92, delivering two elements of the International Space Station: the Z-1 truss and Pressurized Mating Adapter-3. The launch will be the 100th flight in the Shuttle program KSC-00pp1204

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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The orbiter Discovery reaches its destination, the transfer aisle of the Vehicle Assembly Building. There it will be lifted to vertical , then raised and moved to high bay 3 for mating with the external tank and solid rocket boosters. Discovery is scheduled to launch Oct. 5 at 9:30 p.m. EDT on mission STS-92, delivering two elements of the International Space Station: the Z-1 truss and Pressurized Mating Adapter-3. The launch will be the 100th flight in the Shuttle program

Space Shuttle Program

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.