KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - The orbiter Discovery nears touchdown on Runway 15 at NASA's Shuttle Landing Facility after completing mission STS-121 to the International Space Station. At touchdown -- nominally about 2,500 ft. beyond the runway threshold -- the orbiter is traveling at a speed ranging from 213 to 226 mph. Discovery traveled 5.3 million miles, landing on orbit 202. Mission elapsed time was 12 days, 18 hours, 37 minutes and 54 seconds. Main gear touchdown occurred on time at 9:14:43 EDT. Wheel stop was at 9:15:49 EDT. The returning crew members aboard are Commander Steven Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Piers Sellers, Michael Fossum, Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson. Mission Specialist Thomas Reiter, who launched with the crew on July 4, remained on the station to join the Expedition 13 crew there. The landing is the 62nd at Kennedy Space Center and the 32nd for Discovery. During the mission, the STS-121 crew tested new equipment and procedures to improve shuttle safety, and delivered supplies and made repairs to the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA/Tony Gray & Tim Powers KSC-06pp1624

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Thanks for the Lift! - Public Domain image, National Parks Gallery

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Inside the Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, an overhead view shows space shuttle Discovery in high bay 4 with the Astrovan alongside. The Astrovan was used to transport astronauts to Launch Complex 39 for space shuttle missions. The Astrovan is being displayed for Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex guests who take the VAB tour. During the Space Shuttle Program’s transition and retirement processing, Discovery was prepared for display at Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va. Discovery is scheduled to be transported atop a NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft modified 747 jet to Dulles International Airport in Virginia on April 17 and then moved to the Smithsonian for permanent public display on April 19. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann KSC-2012-1955

STS113-S-041. NASA public domain image colelction.

The Space Shuttle Endeavour, accompanied by a convoy of recovery vehicles, is towed up the taxiway a

The space shuttle Enterprise is lifted off its specially-designed 76-wheel transporter by two overhead cranes at Space Launch Complex Six. The crane on the left is from the mobile service tower and the crane on the right is from the shuttle assembly building

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - The orbiter Discovery nears touchdown on Runway 15 at NASA's Shuttle Landing Facility after completing mission STS-121 to the International Space Station. At touchdown -- nominally about 2,500 ft. beyond the runway threshold -- the orbiter is traveling at a speed ranging from 213 to 226 mph. Discovery traveled 5.3 million miles, landing on orbit 202. Mission elapsed time was 12 days, 18 hours, 37 minutes and 54 seconds. Main gear touchdown occurred on time at 9:14:43 EDT. Wheel stop was at 9:15:49 EDT. The returning crew members aboard are Commander Steven Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Piers Sellers, Michael Fossum, Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson. Mission Specialist Thomas Reiter, who launched with the crew on July 4, remained on the station to join the Expedition 13 crew there. The landing is the 62nd at Kennedy Space Center and the 32nd for Discovery. During the mission, the STS-121 crew tested new equipment and procedures to improve shuttle safety, and delivered supplies and made repairs to the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA/Tony Gray & Tim Powers KSC-06pp1624

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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - The orbiter Discovery nears touchdown on Runway 15 at NASA's Shuttle Landing Facility after completing mission STS-121 to the International Space Station. At touchdown -- nominally about 2,500 ft. beyond the runway threshold -- the orbiter is traveling at a speed ranging from 213 to 226 mph. Discovery traveled 5.3 million miles, landing on orbit 202. Mission elapsed time was 12 days, 18 hours, 37 minutes and 54 seconds. Main gear touchdown occurred on time at 9:14:43 EDT. Wheel stop was at 9:15:49 EDT. The returning crew members aboard are Commander Steven Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Piers Sellers, Michael Fossum, Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson. Mission Specialist Thomas Reiter, who launched with the crew on July 4, remained on the station to join the Expedition 13 crew there. The landing is the 62nd at Kennedy Space Center and the 32nd for Discovery. During the mission, the STS-121 crew tested new equipment and procedures to improve shuttle safety, and delivered supplies and made repairs to the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA/Tony Gray & Tim Powers

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.