EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, CALIF. -- Returning from mission STS-117, Atlantis approaches touchdown on the runway at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Atlantis landed on orbit 219 after 13 days, 20 hours and 12 minutes in space. The landing was diverted to California due to marginal weather at the Kennedy Space Center. Main gear touchdown was at 3:49:38 p.m. EDT on runway 22. Nose gear touchdown was at 3:49:49 p.m. and wheel stop was at 3:50:48 p.m. This was the 51st landing for the Space Shuttle Program at Edwards Air Force Base. The mission to the International Space Station was a success, installing and activating the S3/S4 truss and retracting the P6 arrays. The returning crew of seven includes astronaut Sunita Williams, who was flight engineer on the Expedition 15 crew. She achieved a new milestone, a record-setting flight at 194 days, 18 hours and 58 minutes, the longest single spaceflight ever by a female astronaut or cosmonaut. Photo credit: NASA/Tony Landis KSC-07pd1615

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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- From the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center, the orbiter Columbia moves down the runway on the back of a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft on a ferry flight to Palmdale, Calif. On the rear of the orbiter can be seen the tail cone, a fairing that is installed over the aft fuselage of the orbiter to decrease aerodynamic drag and buffet when the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft is transporting the orbiter cross-country. It is 36 feet long, 25 feet wide, and 22 feet high. Columbia, the oldest of four orbiters in NASA's fleet, will undergo extensive inspections and modifications in Boeing's Orbiter Assembly Facility during a nine-month orbiter maintenance down period (OMDP), the second in its history. Orbiters are periodically removed from flight operations for an OMDP. Columbia's first was in 1994. Along with more than 100 modifications on the vehicle, Columbia will be the second orbiter to be outfitted with the multifunctional electronic display system, or "glass cockpit." Columbia is expected to return to KSC in July 2000 KSC-99padig008

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Space Space shuttle Endeavour touches down on Runway 15 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to complete the 16-day, 6.5-million mile journey on the STS-127 mission to the International Space Station. Endeavour landed on orbit 248. Main gear touchdown was at 10:48:08 a.m. EDT. Nose gear touchdown was at 10:48:21 a.m. and wheels stop was at 10:49:13 a.m. Endeavour delivered the Japanese Experiment Module's Exposed Facility and the Experiment Logistics Module-Exposed Section to the International Space Station. The mission was the 29th flight to the station, the 23rd flight of Endeavour and the 127th in the Space Shuttle Program, as well as the 71st landing at Kennedy. Photo credit: NASA/Kevin O'Connell KSC-2009-4302

STS-131 - EOM - Public domain NASA photogrpaph

STS-116 - EOM - Public domain NASA photogrpaph

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Employees line space shuttle Endeavour's path as the spacecraft rolls toward the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Endeavour will be lifted in the gantry-like mate Mate-Demate Device and placed atop NASA's modified 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft for the final ferry flight of the Space Shuttle Program. Endeavour will be placed on permanent public display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-2012-5075

Tony Landis KSC-07pd1615

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EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, CALIF. -- Returning from mission STS-117, Atlantis approaches touchdown on the runway at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Atlantis landed on orbit 219 after 13 days, 20 hours and 12 minutes in space. The landing was diverted to California due to marginal weather at the Kennedy Space Center. Main gear touchdown was at 3:49:38 p.m. EDT on runway 22. Nose gear touchdown was at 3:49:49 p.m. and wheel stop was at 3:50:48 p.m. This was the 51st landing for the Space Shuttle Program at Edwards Air Force Base. The mission to the International Space Station was a success, installing and activating the S3/S4 truss and retracting the P6 arrays. The returning crew of seven includes astronaut Sunita Williams, who was flight engineer on the Expedition 15 crew. She achieved a new milestone, a record-setting flight at 194 days, 18 hours and 58 minutes, the longest single spaceflight ever by a female astronaut or cosmonaut. Photo credit: NASA/Tony Landis

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.