KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Leaders from space agencies around the world participate in a news briefing following the International Space Station Heads of Agency meeting held at Kennedy Space Center. From left are NASA Press Secretary Dean Acosta; NASA Administrator Michael Griffin; Canadian Space Agency Vice-President Space Science, Technology and Programs Virendra Jha; European Space Agency Director-General Jean-Jacques Dordain; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency President Keiji Tachikawa; Japanese interpreter Masako Kaharia; Russian Federal Space Agency Head Anatolii Perminov; and Russian interpreter Elena Maroko. The purpose of the meeting was to review International Space Station cooperation and endorse a revision to the station configuration and assembly sequence. At the meeting, the partners reaffirmed their agencies' commitment to meet their mutual obligations, to implement six person crew operations in 2009 and an adequate number of shuttle flights to complete the assembly of the space station by the end of the decade. Photo credit: NASA/George Shelton KSC-06pd0416

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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - A press conference after the landing of the orbiter Discovery and mission STS-121 crew features NASA and Kennedy Space Center senior management. From left, NASA Public Affairs Dean Acosta moderated questions posed to NASA Administrator Mike Griffin, Associate Administrator for Space Operations Bill Gerstenmaier and Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach. Discovery traveled 5.3 million miles, landing on orbit 202. Mission elapsed time was 12 days, 18 hours, 37 minutes and 54 seconds. The landing is the 62nd at Kennedy Space Center and the 32nd for Discovery. Photo credit: NASA/George Shelton KSC-06pd1593

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - At a press conference following the Flight Readiness Review, a thorough assessment of preparations for the mission, NASA officials announce the final launch date of Aug. 27 for mission STS-115. Seated left to right are Michael Griffin, NASA administrator; Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations; Wayne Hale, Space Shuttle Program manager; and Mike Leinbach, NASA launch director. They also answered questions from the media. Mission STS-115 continues the assembly of the International Space Station with the installation of the truss segments P3 and P4. Liftoff of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-115 is targeted at approximately 4:30 p.m. EDT on Aug. 27. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-06pd1877

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California– At Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, agency leaders held an Educational Launch of Nanosatellites, or ELaNa, CubeSat briefing to discuss three small research satellites that are being flown as auxiliary payloads on the SMAP mission. More than 100 university students have been involved in the design, development and construction of the CubeSats. Presenting the mission science objectives for the ELaNa CubeSats are George Diller of NASA Public Affairs, Scott Higginbotham, NASA ELaNa-X Mission Manager at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, Dave Klumpar, Firebird-II principal investigator and director of the Space Science and Engineering Laboratory at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana, Jordi Puig-Sauri, EXOCUBE principal investigator at the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California, and David Rider, GRIFEX principal investigator at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-2015-1198

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - NASA officials brief the media at KSC about the agency’s human space flight program. At left is moderator Allard Beutel, with NASA Headquarters. Others on the panel (left to right) are NASA Deputy Administrator Fred Gregory, Associate Administrator for Space Flight Bill Readdy and Associate Administrator for Safety and Mission Assurance Bryan O’Connor.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California – At Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, agency and industry leaders spoke to members of the news media as the Soil Moisture Active Passive, or SMAP, satellite and its Delta II rocket were being prepared for launch. From left are: George Diller of NASA Public Affairs, Christine Bonniksen, SMAP program executive at NASA Headquarters, Tim Dunn, NASA launch manager at Kennedy Space Center, Florida Vern Thorp, program manager for NASA Missions for United Launch Alliance in Centennial, Colorado, Kent Kellogg, SMAP Project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, Dara Entekhabi, SMAP science team leader at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and 1st Lt. John Martin, launch weather officer, 30th Operations Support Squadron at Vandenberg. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-2015-1196

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Leaders from space agencies around the world participate in a news briefing following the International Space Station Heads of Agency meeting held at Kennedy Space Center. From left are NASA Press Secretary Dean Acosta; NASA Administrator Michael Griffin; Canadian Space Agency Vice-President Space Science, Technology and Programs Virendra Jha; European Space Agency Director-General Jean-Jacques Dordain; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency President Keiji Tachikawa; Japanese interpreter Masako Kaharia; Russian Federal Space Agency Head Anatolii Perminov; and Russian interpreter Elena Maroko. The purpose of the meeting was to review International Space Station cooperation and endorse a revision to the station configuration and assembly sequence. At the meeting, the partners reaffirmed their agencies' commitment to meet their mutual obligations, to implement six person crew operations in 2009 and an adequate number of shuttle flights to complete the assembly of the space station by the end of the decade. Photo credit: NASA/George Shelton KSC-06pd0416

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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Leaders from space agencies around the world participate in a news briefing following the International Space Station Heads of Agency meeting held at Kennedy Space Center. From left are NASA Press Secretary Dean Acosta; NASA Administrator Michael Griffin; Canadian Space Agency Vice-President Space Science, Technology and Programs Virendra Jha; European Space Agency Director-General Jean-Jacques Dordain; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency President Keiji Tachikawa; Japanese interpreter Masako Kaharia; Russian Federal Space Agency Head Anatolii Perminov; and Russian interpreter Elena Maroko. The purpose of the meeting was to review International Space Station cooperation and endorse a revision to the station configuration and assembly sequence. At the meeting, the partners reaffirmed their agencies' commitment to meet their mutual obligations, to implement six person crew operations in 2009 and an adequate number of shuttle flights to complete the assembly of the space station by the end of the decade. Photo credit: NASA/George Shelton

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.