KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Space Shuttle Discovery and the mobile launcher platform sit on Launch Pad 39B for mission STS-116. The shuttle's external tank is capped by the oxygen vent hood (at top). Below it is the orbiter access arm which swings out from the fixed service structure to the orbiter crew compartment hatch to allow personnel to enter the crew compartment. The outer end of the access arm ends in an environmental chamber (white room) that mates with the orbiter and holds six persons. The arm remains in the extended position until seven minutes 24 seconds before launch to provide emergency egress for the flight crew. At right, the U.S. flag flies at half-staff in accordance with special Presidential Proclamation No. 3044, due to the death of Senior Border Patrol Agent David N. Webb. The rollout of Discovery from the Vehicle Assembly Building began at 12:29 a.m. The shuttle was harddown on the pad at 9:03 a.m. The mission is No. 20 to the International Space Station and construction flight 12A.1. The mission payload is the SPACEHAB module, the P5 integrated truss structure and other key components. The launch window for mission STS-116 opens Dec. 7. Photo credit: NASA/George Shelton KSC-06pd2490

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space shuttle Discovery arrives at Launch Pad 39A from the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It took the shuttle, attached to its external fuel tank, twin solid rocket boosters and mobile launcher platform, about seven hours to complete the move atop a crawler-transporter. This is the second time Discovery has rolled out to the pad for the STS-133 mission, and comes after a thorough check and modifications to the shuttle's external tank. Targeted to liftoff Feb. 24, Discovery will take the Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM) packed with supplies and critical spare parts, as well as Robonaut 2 (R2) to the International Space Station. For more information on STS-133, visit www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts133/. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-2011-1280

STS-28 Columbia, OV-102, night time processing at KSC LC Pad 39B

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Space shuttle Atlantis comes to a stop on the top of Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center after more than a 6-hour journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building. First motion occurred at 9:19 a.m. EDT and Atlantis was hard down on the pad at 3:52 p.m. At far left is the rotating service structure that will be rotated to enclose the shuttle for launch preparations. The shuttle stack, with solid rocket boosters and external fuel tank attached to Atlantis, rest on the mobile launcher platform. Movement is provided by the crawler-transporter underneath. The Sept. 2 rollout date was postponed due to Tropical Storm Hanna’s shift to a northern track. Atlantis is scheduled to launch on the STS-125 mission to service NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Launch is targeted for Oct. 8. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-08pd2548

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. -- Workers watch the rollback of the Rotating Service Structure (left) from around Space Shuttle Discovery on Launch Pad 39B. Poised above the orange external tank is the Gaseous Oxygen Vent Arm with the “beanie cap,” a vent hood. The RSS provides protected access to the orbiter for changeout and servicing of payloads. It is supported by a rotating bridge that pivots about a vertical axis on the west side of the pad’s flame trench. Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to launch March 8 at 6:42 a.m. EST on the eighth construction flight to the International Space Station. It carries the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Leonardo, the primary delivery system used to resupply and return Station cargo requiring a pressurized environment. Leonardo will deliver up to 10 tons of laboratory racks filled with equipment, experiments and supplies for outfitting the newly installed U.S. Laboratory Destiny KSC01pp0441

STS-131 Discovery Lift & Mate to SRB/ET Stack 2010-1903

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Space Shuttle Discovery and the mobile launcher platform sit on Launch Pad 39B for mission STS-116. The shuttle's external tank is capped by the oxygen vent hood (at top). Below it is the orbiter access arm which swings out from the fixed service structure to the orbiter crew compartment hatch to allow personnel to enter the crew compartment. The outer end of the access arm ends in an environmental chamber (white room) that mates with the orbiter and holds six persons. The arm remains in the extended position until seven minutes 24 seconds before launch to provide emergency egress for the flight crew. At right, the U.S. flag flies at half-staff in accordance with special Presidential Proclamation No. 3044, due to the death of Senior Border Patrol Agent David N. Webb. The rollout of Discovery from the Vehicle Assembly Building began at 12:29 a.m. The shuttle was harddown on the pad at 9:03 a.m. The mission is No. 20 to the International Space Station and construction flight 12A.1. The mission payload is the SPACEHAB module, the P5 integrated truss structure and other key components. The launch window for mission STS-116 opens Dec. 7. Photo credit: NASA/George Shelton KSC-06pd2490

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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Space Shuttle Discovery and the mobile launcher platform sit on Launch Pad 39B for mission STS-116. The shuttle's external tank is capped by the oxygen vent hood (at top). Below it is the orbiter access arm which swings out from the fixed service structure to the orbiter crew compartment hatch to allow personnel to enter the crew compartment. The outer end of the access arm ends in an environmental chamber (white room) that mates with the orbiter and holds six persons. The arm remains in the extended position until seven minutes 24 seconds before launch to provide emergency egress for the flight crew. At right, the U.S. flag flies at half-staff in accordance with special Presidential Proclamation No. 3044, due to the death of Senior Border Patrol Agent David N. Webb. The rollout of Discovery from the Vehicle Assembly Building began at 12:29 a.m. The shuttle was harddown on the pad at 9:03 a.m. The mission is No. 20 to the International Space Station and construction flight 12A.1. The mission payload is the SPACEHAB module, the P5 integrated truss structure and other key components. The launch window for mission STS-116 opens Dec. 7. Photo credit: NASA/George Shelton

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.