CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – – The transporter with the payload canister closes in on the rotating service structure, or RSS, on Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. When it is under the RSS, the canister will be lifted up into the Payload Changeout Room above. Inside the canister is space shuttle Endeavour's payload for the STS-127 mission, which includes the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo Exposed Facility and the Experiment Logistics Module Exposed Section to the International Space Station. They will be installed on the Kibo laboratory on the station. Launch of Endeavour is targeted for June 13. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-2009-3239

Similar

Radio Frequency Interference Test - Launch Complex (LC)-37A - Cape

Edwards AFB Historic Test Stand 1A stands on the eastern

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – As part of NASA's Ground Systems Development and Operations Program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a work platform is lowered onto a transporter for removal from the Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB. As part of a modernization effort, flexible settings area being designed for multiple launch vehicles instead of the whole building supporting one design. The Ground Systems Development and Operations Program is developing the necessary ground systems, infrastructure and operational approaches required to safely process, assemble, transport and launch the next generation of rockets and spacecraft in support of NASA’s exploration objectives. Future work also will replace the antiquated communications, power and vehicle access resources with modern efficient systems. Some of the utilities and systems slated for replacement have been used since the VAB opened in 1965. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/ground/index.html Photo credit: NASA/Charisse Nahser KSC-2012-5571

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – On NASA Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39B, hardware known as the stabilizing arm is ready to be lifted and attached to the fixed service structure. The arm will used for the Ares I-X rocket launch, targeted for Oct. 31. Ares I-X is part of NASA's Constellation Program. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-2009-5094

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Members of a hurricane assessment team from Johnson Space Center and Marshall Space Flight Center tour the roof of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) a week after Hurricane Frances hit the east coast of Central Florida and Kennedy Space Center. The VAB lost 820, 4- x 16-foot panels from the side walls, or more than 52,000 square feet of its surface. KSC-04pd1766

STS-132 PAYLOAD CANISTER AT PAD 39A 2010-2733

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – – The transporter with the payload canister closes in on the rotating service structure, or RSS, on Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. When it is under the RSS, the canister will be lifted up into the Payload Changeout Room above. Inside the canister is space shuttle Endeavour's payload for the STS-127 mission, which includes the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo Exposed Facility and the Experiment Logistics Module Exposed Section to the International Space Station. They will be installed on the Kibo laboratory on the station. Launch of Endeavour is targeted for June 13. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-2009-3239

description

Summary

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – – The transporter with the payload canister closes in on the rotating service structure, or RSS, on Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. When it is under the RSS, the canister will be lifted up into the Payload Changeout Room above. Inside the canister is space shuttle Endeavour's payload for the STS-127 mission, which includes the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo Exposed Facility and the Experiment Logistics Module Exposed Section to the International Space Station. They will be installed on the Kibo laboratory on the station. Launch of Endeavour is targeted for June 13. 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.