CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a full-size mock-up of the Orion spacecraft and launch abort system were transported to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. In the background are full-size replicas of the external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters that mark the entranceway to the new Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit. Crane operators and technicians practice de-stacking operations on mock-ups of Orion and the launch abort system in the Vehicle Assembly Building in order to keep processing procedures and skills current. Orion is the exploration spacecraft designed to carry crews to space beyond low Earth orbit. It will provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities. Orion’s first unpiloted test flight is scheduled to launch in 2014 atop a Delta IV rocket. A second uncrewed flight test is scheduled for 2017 on NASA’s Space Launch System rocket. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/orion. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann KSC-2013-2903

Similar

Airmen assigned to the 66th Rescue Squadron, 823rd

NASA Images in National Museum of the US Navy S65-63220 (26601142552)

STS-130 - Public domain NASA photogrpaph

Atlantis STS-135 Rollout (201105310015HQ)

NASA's space shuttle Endeavour, perched atop a modified

Edwards, Calif. – ED13-0266-007- The Sierra Nevada Corporation, or SNC, Dream Chaser flight vehicle is prepared for 60 mph tow tests on taxi and runways at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Ground testing at 10, 20, 40 and 60 miles per hour is helping the company validate the performance of the spacecraft's braking and landing systems prior to captive-carry and free-flight tests scheduled for later this year. SNC is continuing the development of its Dream Chaser spacecraft under the agency's Commercial Crew Development Round 2, or CCDev2, and Commercial Crew Integrated Capability, or CCiCap, phases, which are intended to lead to the availability of commercial human spaceflight services for government and commercial customers. To learn more about CCP and its industry partners, visit www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew. Image credit: NASA/Ken Ulbrich KSC-2013-3295

Jim Grossmann KSC-2013-2903

description

Summary

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a full-size mock-up of the Orion spacecraft and launch abort system were transported to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. In the background are full-size replicas of the external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters that mark the entranceway to the new Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit. Crane operators and technicians practice de-stacking operations on mock-ups of Orion and the launch abort system in the Vehicle Assembly Building in order to keep processing procedures and skills current. Orion is the exploration spacecraft designed to carry crews to space beyond low Earth orbit. It will provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities. Orion’s first unpiloted test flight is scheduled to launch in 2014 atop a Delta IV rocket. A second uncrewed flight test is scheduled for 2017 on NASA’s Space Launch System rocket. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/orion. 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.