KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - In the Space Station Processing Facility, STS-118 Commander Scott Kelly (left) and Mission Specialist Barbara Morgan (center) are briefed on equipment during Crew Equipment Interface Test activities. The mission to the International Space Station will be delivering the third starboard truss segment, the ITS S5, which will be attached to the station, and a SPACEHAB Single Cargo Module with supplies and equipment. Launch aboard Space Shuttle Columbia is scheduled for Nov. 13, 2003. KSC-03pd0042

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S123E009786 - STS-123 - Linnehan in the European Laboratory/Columbus during Joint Operations

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - In the Orbiter Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, STS-115 crew members inspect equipment in Atlantis's payload bay. Looking at the orbiter boom sensor system are, from left, Mission Specialists Joseph Tanner and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper. The crew is at KSC for Crew Equipment Interface Test activities, which involves equipment familiarization, a routine part of astronaut training and launch preparations. The STS-115 mission will deliver the second port truss segment, the P3/P4 truss, to the International Space Station. The crew will attach the P3 to the first port truss segment, the P1 truss, as well as deploy solar array set 2A and 4A. Launch on Space Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled for late August. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-06pd1208

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, CALIF. -- In Building 1555 at North Vandenberg Air Force Base, workers lift the AIM spacecraft from its stand in order to move it into an area where a partial deployment of the solar arrays on the spacecraft will take place. The AIM spacecraft will fly three instruments designed to study polar mesospheric clouds located at the edge of space, 50 miles above the Earth's surface in the coldest part of the planet's atmosphere. The mission's primary goal is to explain why these clouds form and what has caused them to become brighter and more numerous and appear at lower latitudes in recent years. AIM's results will provide the basis for the study of long-term variability in the mesospheric climate and its relationship to global climate change. AIM is scheduled to be mated to the Pegasus XL during the second week of April, after which final inspections will be conducted. Launch is scheduled for April 25. KSC-07pd0688

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At SPACEHAB in Titusville, Fla., STS-127 Mission Specialist Christopher Cassidy gets a close look at the Pump Module Assembly, part of the payload for the mission. The crew members are at Kennedy for a crew equipment interface test, or CEIT, which provides experience handling tools, equipment and hardware they will use on the mission. The payload will be launched to the International Space Station aboard space shuttle Endeavour on the STS-127 mission, targeted for launch on May 15, 2009. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitrios Gerondidakis KSC-08pd4039

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In the cryogenic test bed facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Time Domain Reflectometry, or TDR, instrumentation is being exposed to "wet" super-cold temperatures for identifying the signature of a cryogenic environment and calibrating the TDR equipment. The equipment will be used at the launch pad to test a procedure identical to a tanking test on space shuttle Atlantis' external tank planned for Dec. 18. The shuttle's planned launches on Dec. 6 and Dec. 9 were postponed because of false readings from the part of the engine cut-off, or ECO, sensor system that monitors the liquid hydrogen section of the tank. The liftoff date from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida, is now targeted for Jan. 10, depending on the resolution of the problem in the fuel sensor system. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-07pd3643

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - In the Space Station Processing Facility, STS-118 Commander Scott Kelly (left) and Mission Specialist Barbara Morgan (center) are briefed on equipment during Crew Equipment Interface Test activities. The mission to the International Space Station will be delivering the third starboard truss segment, the ITS S5, which will be attached to the station, and a SPACEHAB Single Cargo Module with supplies and equipment. Launch aboard Space Shuttle Columbia is scheduled for Nov. 13, 2003. KSC-03pd0042

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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - In the Space Station Processing Facility, STS-118 Commander Scott Kelly (left) and Mission Specialist Barbara Morgan (center) are briefed on equipment during Crew Equipment Interface Test activities. The mission to the International Space Station will be delivering the third starboard truss segment, the ITS S5, which will be attached to the station, and a SPACEHAB Single Cargo Module with supplies and equipment. Launch aboard Space Shuttle Columbia is scheduled for Nov. 13, 2003.

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.