CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, workers watch the vehicle motion simulator, or VMS, simulate all of the movements a space vehicle could experience from rollout to launch. The VMS is part of the Launch Equipment Test Facility's (LETF) $35 million comprehensive upgrade that lasted four years. The LETF was established in the 1970s to support the qualification of the Space Shuttle Program’s umbilical and T-0 mechanisms. Throughout the years, it has supported the development of systems for shuttle and the International Space Station, Delta and Atlas rockets, and various research and development programs. The LETF has unique capabilities to evolve into a versatile test and development area that supports a wide spectrum of programs. For information on NASA's future plans, visit www.nasa.gov. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis KSC-2010-4514

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- In high bay 4 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a crane is ready to lift the Ares I-X upper stage simulator segment 7. The segment will be stacked onto segment 6. The upper stage simulator comprises 11 segments, each approximately 18 feet in diameter, that will be used in the test flight identified as Ares I-X in 2009. The simulator segments will simulate the mass and the outer mold line. The upper stage accounts for nearly one-quarter of the total height of the Ares I. It will take the Ares I on the second phase of its journey from Earth, providing the guidance, navigation and control needed for the second phase of the Ares I ascent flight. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-08pd3941

LETF RIBBON CUTTING CEREMONY FOR THE OPERATION READINESS DATE (ORD) 2010-4514

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High-angle bow on view of the US Navy (USN) Cruise Missile Submarine USS OHIO (SSGN 726) berthed inside the dry dock at the Intermediate Maintenance Facility at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Washington (WA). The OHIO is one of four USN Strategic Missile Subs that have been selected for conversion to the new SSGN class that will improve their capability to support and launch Tomahawk Missiles, Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUV), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and Special Forces personnel and equipment

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, workers watch the vehicle motion simulator, or VMS, simulate all of the movements a space vehicle could experience from rollout to launch. The VMS is part of the Launch Equipment Test Facility's (LETF) $35 million comprehensive upgrade that lasted four years. The LETF was established in the 1970s to support the qualification of the Space Shuttle Program’s umbilical and T-0 mechanisms. Throughout the years, it has supported the development of systems for shuttle and the International Space Station, Delta and Atlas rockets, and various research and development programs. The LETF has unique capabilities to evolve into a versatile test and development area that supports a wide spectrum of programs. For information on NASA's future plans, visit www.nasa.gov. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis KSC-2010-4514

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, workers watch the vehicle motion simulator, or VMS, simulate all of the movements a space vehicle could experience from rollout to launch. The VMS is part of the Launch Equipment Test Facility's (LETF) $35 million comprehensive upgrade that lasted four years. The LETF was established in the 1970s to support the qualification of the Space Shuttle Program’s umbilical and T-0 mechanisms. Throughout the years, it has supported the development of systems for shuttle and the International Space Station, Delta and Atlas rockets, and various research and development programs. The LETF has unique capabilities to evolve into a versatile test and development area that supports a wide spectrum of programs. For information on NASA's future plans, visit www.nasa.gov. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis

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.