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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space shuttle Discovery's STS-133 crew members depart NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in a T-38 training jet. The six-member crew will wait until at least Nov. 30 to launch to the International Space Station because a leak was detected at the Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate (GUCP) while Discovery's external fuel tank was being loaded for launch on Nov. 5. The GUCP is an attachment point between the external tank and a pipe that carries gaseous hydrogen safely away from the shuttle to the flare stack, where it is burned off. Engineers and managers also will evaluate a crack in the foam on the external tank. During the 11-day mission, STS-133 will deliver the Permanent Multipurpose Module, packed with supplies and critical spare parts, as well as Robonaut 2, to the orbiting laboratory. Discovery, which will fly its 39th mission, is scheduled to be retired following STS-133. This will be the 133rd Space Shuttle Program mission and the 35th shuttle voyage to the space station. For more information on STS-133, visit www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts133/. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-2010-5512
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space shuttle Discovery's STS-133 crew members depart NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in a T-38 training jet. The six-member crew will wait until at least Nov. 30 to launch to the International Space Station because a leak was detected at the Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate (GUCP) while Discovery's external fuel tank was being loaded for launch on Nov. 5. The GUCP is an attachment point between the external tank and a pipe that carries gaseous hydrogen safely away from the shuttle to the flare stack, where it is burned off. Engineers and managers also will evaluate a crack in the foam on the external tank. During the 11-day mission, STS-133 will deliver the Permanent Multipurpose Module, packed with supplies and critical spare parts, as well as Robonaut 2, to the orbiting laboratory. Discovery, which will fly its 39th mission, is scheduled to be retired following STS-133. This will be the 133rd Space Shuttle Program mission and the 35th shuttle voyage to the space station. For more information on STS-133, visit www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts133/. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
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.
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