JSC2011-E-040269 (24 March 2011) --- The crew members of STS-135 are briefed by trainers before they participate in a post-insertion training session in the Full-Fuselage Trainer in the Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston March 24, 2011. Photo credit: NASA Photo/Houston Chronicle, Smiley N. Pool STS_135_PostInsertion

Similar

STS058-76-042 - STS-058 - Earth observations during STS-58

S131E009931 - STS-131 - ISS External Survey

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The Hubble Space Telescope Orbiting Systems Test (HOST), one of the payloads on the STS-95 mission, is suspended above its payload canister in the Space Station Processing Facility. The canister is 65 feet long, 18 feet wide and 18 feet, 7 inches high. The HOST platform is carrying four experiments to validate components planned for installation during the third Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission and to evaluate new technologies in an Earth-orbiting environment. The STS-95 mission is scheduled to launch Oct. 29. It will carry other payloads such as the Spartan solar-observing deployable spacecraft, the International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker (IEH-3), and the SPACEHAB single module with experiments on space flight and the aging process KSC-98pc1138

STS079-341-019 - STS-079 - STS-79 crew at the aft flight deck windows

S45-29-036 - STS-045 - STS-45 earth observations

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - At the Shuttle Landing Facility, the European Space Agency's research laboratory, designated Columbus, slides out onto an Airbus Transport International platform. The module will be lifted onto a flat bed truck and transported to the Space Station Processing Facility. In the SSPF, the module will be prepared for delivery to the International Space Station on a future space shuttle mission. Columbus will expand the research facilities of the station and provide researchers with the ability to conduct numerous experiments in the area of life, physical and materials sciences. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann KSC-06pd0955

JSC2011-E-040269 (24 March 2011) --- The crew members of STS-135 are briefed by trainers before they participate in a post-insertion training session in the Full-Fuselage Trainer in the Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston March 24, 2011. Photo credit: NASA Photo/Houston Chronicle, Smiley N. Pool STS_135_PostInsertion

description

Summary

JSC2011-E-040269 (24 March 2011) --- The crew members of STS-135 are briefed by trainers before they participate in a post-insertion training session in the Full-Fuselage Trainer in the Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston March 24, 2011. Photo credit: NASA Photo/Houston Chronicle, Smiley N. Pool

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.