CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, space shuttle Endeavour's main engine no. 2 is moved out of Orbiter Processing Bay 2 after removal from the shuttle. Engine removal is part of the post-landing processing. Endeavour returned from the STS-127 mission July 31. Endeavour's next mission is STS-130 targeted for February 2010. Endeavour will deliver to the International Space Station the Tranquility pressurized module that will provide room for many of the station's life support systems. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller KSC-2009-4706

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.