CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- In Orbiter Processing Facility-2 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, United Space Alliance technicians remove the main propulsion system tanks from space shuttle Endeavour’s mid-body. The tanks will be retained for possible future use on the agency’s Space Launch System Program. The work is part of Endeavour’s transition and retirement processing. The spacecraft is being prepared for public display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Endeavour flew 25 missions, spent 299 days in space, orbited Earth 4,671 times and traveled 122, 883, 151 miles over the course of its 19-year career. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle. Photo credit: Dimitri Gerondidakis KSC-2012-1880

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Descent Stage of Mars Science Laboratory During Assembly

A vertical view of the Space Station Processing Facility shows the lineup of elements in various stages of preparation for future flights to the Space Station. KSC-01pp0999

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, members of the STS-124 crew look over the scientific airlock in the Kibo pressurized module. The module is part of the payload for the mission, targeted for launch no earlier than April 24. The crew comprises seven: Commander Mark Kelly, Pilot Kenneth Ham, and Mission Specialists Karen Nyberg, Ronald Garan, Michael Fossum and Akihiko Hoshide. The crew is at Kennedy for a crew equipment interface test that includes familiarization with tools and equipment that will be used on the mission. The STS-124 mission is the second of three flights that will launch components to complete the Japanese pressurized module, the Kibo laboratory. The mission will include two spacewalks to install the new lab and its remote manipulator system. The lab's logistics module, which will have been installed in a temporary location during STS-123, will be attached to the new lab. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-08pd0050

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - In the Payload Changeout Room, or PCR, on Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, workers use the payload ground-handling mechanism to transfer space shuttle Endeavour's STS-126 mission payload from the payload canister. At left is seen the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Leonardo. The payload later will be installed in Endeavour's payload bay. Endeavour is targeted for launch on Nov. 14. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-08pd3324

Operation to stack Ares 1-X Segment US5 onto US4

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - In the Space Station Processing Facility, STS-115 Mission Specialist Joseph Tanner (left) and STS-117 Mission Specialist James Reilly (right) are donning protective clothing to interface with the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM), in the background. Equipment familiarization is a routine part of astronaut training and launch preparations.

shuttle. Photo credit: Dimitri Gerondidakis KSC-2012-1880

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- In Orbiter Processing Facility-2 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, United Space Alliance technicians remove the main propulsion system tanks from space shuttle Endeavour’s mid-body. The tanks will be retained for possible future use on the agency’s Space Launch System Program. The work is part of Endeavour’s transition and retirement processing. The spacecraft is being prepared for public display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Endeavour flew 25 missions, spent 299 days in space, orbited Earth 4,671 times and traveled 122, 883, 151 miles over the course of its 19-year career. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle. Photo credit: Dimitri Gerondidakis

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.