CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Inside Orbiter Processing Facility-1 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, space shuttle Discovery is being readied for its move to the Vehicle Assembly Building VAB. The aft view of Discovery reveals the tail cone that covers the three replica shuttle main engines. The work is part of the Space Shuttle Program’s transition and retirement processing of shuttle Discovery, which is being prepared for display at Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va. Discovery will remain in high bay 4 of the VAB until its scheduled transport atop a NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft modified 747 jet to Dulles International Airport in Virginia on April 17. Discovery will then be transported to the Smithsonian on April 19. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann KSC-2012-1698

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T & R Discovery, Right OMS Pod Removal 2011-3024

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a view from above shows the Orion ground test vehicle, or GTA, being lifted by crane in the transfer aisle of the Vehicle Assembly Building. The ground test vehicle is being used for path finding operations, including simulated manufacturing, assembly and stacking procedures. Orion is the exploration spacecraft designed to carry astronauts to destinations not yet explored by humans, including an asteroid and Mars. It will have emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities. The first unpiloted test flight of Orion is scheduled to launch in 2014 atop a Delta IV rocket and in 2017 on NASA’s Space Launch System rocket. For more information, visit www.nasa.gov/orion. Photo credit: Dimitri Gerondidakis KSC-2013-3720

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. — In the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA Kennedy Space Center, an overhead crane lifts the right aft booster segments (aft skirt and aft motor segment). The segments, to be used with space shuttle Discovery on mission STS-121, will be installed on the mobile launcher platform in Bay 3.Mission STS-121 is the second space shuttle mission in the return-to-flight sequence. The booster assembly is a major milestone in the processing sequence that leads to launch. The launch date is targeted no earlier than May. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller KSC-06pd0116

Space shuttle Shuttle flyover. NASA public domain image colelction.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Space shuttle Discovery, attached to a purge unit that pumps conditioned air into the shuttle while it is towed, approaches Orbiter Processing Facility-2 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Behind the processing bays is the 525-foot-tall Vehicle Assembly Building. Discovery touched down on the Shuttle Landing Facility's Runway 15 at 11:57 a.m., bringing an end to its 39th and final spaceflight mission, STS-133. Discovery and its six-member STS-133 crew delivered the Permanent Multipurpose Module, packed with supplies and critical spare parts, as well as Robonaut 2, the dexterous humanoid astronaut helper, to the International Space Station. Inside the processing facility, Discovery will be prepared for future public display. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller KSC-2011-2163

S128E009535 - STS-128 - ISS Flyaround views from STS-128

Jim Grossmann KSC-2012-1698

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Summary

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Inside Orbiter Processing Facility-1 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, space shuttle Discovery is being readied for its move to the Vehicle Assembly Building VAB. The aft view of Discovery reveals the tail cone that covers the three replica shuttle main engines. The work is part of the Space Shuttle Program’s transition and retirement processing of shuttle Discovery, which is being prepared for display at Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va. Discovery will remain in high bay 4 of the VAB until its scheduled transport atop a NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft modified 747 jet to Dulles International Airport in Virginia on April 17. Discovery will then be transported to the Smithsonian on April 19. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

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.