CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - In the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the newly arrived ExPRESS Logistics Carrier 3, or ELC-3, is lifted high above the clean room floor. ELC-3 and the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer are the primary payloads for space shuttle Endeavour's STS-134 mission to the International Space Station. The STS-134 crew will also deliver spare parts including two S-band communications antennas, a high pressure gas tank, additional spare parts for Dextre and micrometeoroid debris shields. Endeavour's launch is targeted for July 29, 2010. For information on the STS-134 mission objectives and crew, visit http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-2009-6673

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.