CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA managers welcome space shuttle Discovery's STS-133 crew members home to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In the foreground, Discovery Flow Director Stephanie Stilson hugs STS-133 Pilot Eric Boe. Beside them, Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach congratulates Mission Specialist Alvin Drew on a successful mission. Discovery and its six-member crew landed on the Shuttle Landing Facility's Runway 15 at 11:57 a.m. EST, bringing an end to the 13-day, 5.3-million-mile mission to the International Space Station. STS-133 delivered the Permanent Multipurpose Module, packed with supplies and critical spare parts, as well as Robonaut 2, the dexterous humanoid astronaut helper, to the orbiting outpost. STS-133 was Discovery's 39th and final mission. This was the 133rd Space Shuttle Program mission and the 35th shuttle voyage to the space station. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-2011-2128

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA managers welcome space shuttle Discovery's STS-133 crew members home to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In the foreground, Discovery Flow Director Stephanie Stilson hugs STS-133 Pilot Eric Boe. Beside them, Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach congratulates Mission Specialist Alvin Drew on a successful mission. Discovery and its six-member crew landed on the Shuttle Landing Facility's Runway 15 at 11:57 a.m. EST, bringing an end to the 13-day, 5.3-million-mile mission to the International Space Station. STS-133 delivered the Permanent Multipurpose Module, packed with supplies and critical spare parts, as well as Robonaut 2, the dexterous humanoid astronaut helper, to the orbiting outpost. STS-133 was Discovery's 39th and final mission. This was the 133rd Space Shuttle Program mission and the 35th shuttle voyage to the space station. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-2011-2128

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA managers welcome space shuttle Discovery's STS-133 crew members home to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In the foreground, Discovery Flow Director Stephanie Stilson hugs STS-133 Pilot Eric Boe. Beside them, Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach congratulates Mission Specialist Alvin Drew on a successful mission. Discovery and its six-member crew landed on the Shuttle Landing Facility's Runway 15 at 11:57 a.m. EST, bringing an end to the 13-day, 5.3-million-mile mission to the International Space Station. STS-133 delivered the Permanent Multipurpose Module, packed with supplies and critical spare parts, as well as Robonaut 2, the dexterous humanoid astronaut helper, to the orbiting outpost. STS-133 was Discovery's 39th and final mission. This was the 133rd Space Shuttle Program mission and the 35th shuttle voyage to the space station. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

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.