CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Just before dawn, the Pegasus Barge which is moored in a secure area of the Turn Basin in the Launch Complex 39 area at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is being prepared to deliver space shuttle main engine (SSME) ground support equipment to Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss. The 266-foot-long and 50-foot-wide barge will be towed to Stennis by NASA's Freedom Star ship. Since being delivered to NASA in 1999, Pegasus sailed 41 times and transported 31 shuttle external fuel tanks from Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans to Kennedy. The barge will leave Kennedy, perhaps for the final time. Both the barge and shuttle equipment will remain in storage until their specific future uses are determined. The SSMEs themselves will be transported to Stennis separately for use with the agency’s new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System. The work is part of the Space Shuttle Program’s transition and retirement processing. For more information about Shuttle Transition and Retirement, visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/transition/home/index.html. Photo credit: NASA/ Kim Shiflett KSC-2011-7704

Similar

Expedition 10 Preflight. NASA public domain image colelction.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- In the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the external tank for space shuttle Discovery is being lowered into place in high bay 3 between the solid rocket boosters waiting on the mobile launcher platform. The tank will be mated to the boosters. Discovery is targeted to launch May 31 on the STS-124 mission to the International Space Station. On the mission, Discovery will transport the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module - Pressurized Module (JEM-PM) and the Japanese Remote Manipulator System (JEM-RMS) to the space station to add to the Kibo laboratory. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-08pd0945

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - After its return to Launch Complex 17 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the second stage of the Boeing Delta II launch vehicle for the STEREO spacecraft is being prepared to be raised to vertical. The stage has been returned to the pad after being tested for leaks in the High-Pressure Test Facility; no leak was observed. The stage will again be lifted into the mobile service tower and remated with the Delta first stage. STEREO stands for Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory and comprises two spacecraft. The STEREO mission is the first to take measurements of the sun and solar wind in 3-dimension. This new view will improve our understanding of space weather and its impact on the Earth. STEREO is expected to lift off on Aug. 31. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis KSC-06pd1733

Expedition 29 Soyuz Rollout. NASA public domain image colelction.

An unidentified Ocean Tug and several harbor tugboats escort the Sea Based X-Band Radar (SBX) as it departs Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (HI) after a three-month port visit. The SBX arrived to undergo minor modifications, post-transit maintenance and routine inspections. The on-board propulsion system allows SBX to transit to its homeport in Adak, Alaska in the Aleutian Islands. The SBX will provide the nation with highly advanced ballistic-missile detection

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- In the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, external fuel tank, ET-122, for space shuttle Endeavour's STS-134 mission, is ready to be lifted from its test cell. When lowered in place, the tank will be attached to the solid rocket boosters on the mobile launcher platform. Endeavour and its crew will deliver the Express Logistics Carrier-3 and the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the International Space Station. Launch is targeted for April 19. For more information visit, http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts134/index.html. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller KSC-2011-1129

Kim Shiflett KSC-2011-7704

description

Summary

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Just before dawn, the Pegasus Barge which is moored in a secure area of the Turn Basin in the Launch Complex 39 area at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is being prepared to deliver space shuttle main engine (SSME) ground support equipment to Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss. The 266-foot-long and 50-foot-wide barge will be towed to Stennis by NASA's Freedom Star ship. Since being delivered to NASA in 1999, Pegasus sailed 41 times and transported 31 shuttle external fuel tanks from Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans to Kennedy. The barge will leave Kennedy, perhaps for the final time. Both the barge and shuttle equipment will remain in storage until their specific future uses are determined. The SSMEs themselves will be transported to Stennis separately for use with the agency’s new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System. The work is part of the Space Shuttle Program’s transition and retirement processing. For more information about Shuttle Transition and Retirement, visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/transition/home/index.html. 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.