CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a crane maneuvers the seventh tower segment of a new mobile launcher, or ML, being constructed to support the Constellation Program, toward the six segments already in place, in the background at left. When completed, the tower will be approximately 345 feet tall and have multiple platforms for personnel access. The construction is under way at the mobile launcher park site area north of Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building. The launcher will provide a base to launch the Ares I rocket, designed to transport the Orion crew exploration vehicle, its crew and cargo to low Earth orbit. Its base is being made lighter than space shuttle mobile launcher platforms so the crawler-transporter can pick up the heavier load of the tower and taller rocket. For information on the Ares I, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ares. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller KSC-2009-6897

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Space Shuttle Projects, Marshall Space Flight Center

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - In the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, a crane is attached to a solid rocket booster segment sitting on a transporter. The segment will be lifted up into high bay 3 and placed on mobile launcher platform No. 2 for use on mission STS-115. The mission will deliver a truss and other key components to the International Space Station. Launch is currently scheduled for late August. Photo credit: NASA/Charisse Nahser KSC-06pd0988

Foto från Norrköping. >>, Tekniska museet, Sweden

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – In the transfer isle of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians finish building the tail cone that will be installed around space shuttle Endeavour’s three replica shuttle main engines for protection. The tail cone protects the main engines during ferry flights on top of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA. The work is part of the Space Shuttle Program’s transition and retirement processing of shuttle Endeavour. Endeavour is being prepared for public display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Its ferry flight to California is targeted for mid-September. Endeavour was the last space shuttle added to NASA’s orbiter fleet. Over the course of its 19-year career, Endeavour spent 299 days in space during 25 missions. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann KSC-2012-2955

T&R Endeavour, Final Buildup of Tail Cover for Ferry Flight 2012-2955

Jack Pfaller KSC-2009-6897

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Summary

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a crane maneuvers the seventh tower segment of a new mobile launcher, or ML, being constructed to support the Constellation Program, toward the six segments already in place, in the background at left. When completed, the tower will be approximately 345 feet tall and have multiple platforms for personnel access. The construction is under way at the mobile launcher park site area north of Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building. The launcher will provide a base to launch the Ares I rocket, designed to transport the Orion crew exploration vehicle, its crew and cargo to low Earth orbit. Its base is being made lighter than space shuttle mobile launcher platforms so the crawler-transporter can pick up the heavier load of the tower and taller rocket. For information on the Ares I, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ares. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

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.