CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, 23-foot cables used to hold a Bambi Bucket are checked out prior to a training exercise to practice firefighting techniques. A three-person helicopter crew recently practiced using a Bambi Bucket to pick up water from a nearby waterway and dropping it on simulated targets at the center’s Shuttle Landing Facility. Firefighters respond to wildfires with teams on the ground and in the air. The most up-to-date tools include helicopters that use Bambi Buckets large quantities of water. NASA Flight Operations teams are training to perfect the skills needed to ensure they are ready to use tools, such as the Bambi Bucket, in the event of an out-of-control blaze at the spaceport. Photo credit: NASA/Frankie Martin KSC-2014-4218

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.