KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Bob Herman,chief engineer, Ground Operations for United Space Alliance (USA), shows U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (center) part of orbiter Atlantis. Nelson was at KSC to present gold seal Senate certificates to the Flow Liner Inspection & Repair team for their part in finding the cracks in orbiter flow liners and repairing them. Team members are (behind Herman and Nelson, left to right) Mike Young, Jerry Goudy, Rick Beckwith, Tony Nesotas and David Strait. Goudy performed arc welding on one of Atlantis' flow liners; Strait found the original crack. In the foreground are Shuttle Engineering Director, USA, Mark Nappi; Center Director Roy Bridges; and vice president and deputy program manager, Florida Operations, USA, Bill Pickavance. KSC-02pd1267

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.