KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The SPACEHAB payload arrived at Launch Pad 39A this morning and was installed in the Payload Changeout Room. Final preparations for liftoff of the STS-89 mission are under way. Endeavour and its crew of seven are targeted for a Jan. 22 launch. STS-89 will be the eighth Shuttle docking with the Russian Space Station Mir as part of Phase 1 of the International Space Station program. Mission Specialist Andy Thomas, Ph.D., will succeed Mission Specialist David Wolf, M.D., as the last NASA astronaut scheduled for a long-duration stay aboard Mir KSC-97PC1808

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VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- At NASA’s Space Launch Complex-2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, technicians monitor the progress as solid rocket motors are lifted and attached to the United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket. The Delta II will carry NASA’s National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite into space. NPP represents a critical first step in building the next-generation of Earth-observing satellites. NPP will carry the first of the new sensors developed for this satellite fleet, now known as the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) to be launched in 2016. NPP is the bridge between NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites and the forthcoming series of JPSS satellites. The mission will test key technologies and instruments for the JPSS missions. NPP is targeted to launch Oct. 25. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/NPP. Photo credit: NASA/VAFB, Mark Mackley KSC-2011-6595

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – On Launch Pad 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the GOES-O and Delta IV upper stage are nearly vertical for movement into the mobile service tower for prelaunch preparations. GOES–O is one of a series of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites. The multi-mission GOES series N-P will be a vital contributor to weather, solar and space operations and science. NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, are actively engaged in a cooperative program to expand the existing GOES system with the launch of the GOES N-P satellites. Launch of the GOES-O is targeted for no earlier than April 2009. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann KSC-2009-1859

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The second stage of the Delta II launch vehicle for the Dawn spacecraft is lifted alongside the mobile service tower on Launch Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It will be mated with the first stage already in the tower. The Delta II-Heavy, manufactured by the United Launch Alliance, is scheduled to launch the Dawn spacecraft on its 4-year flight to the asteroid belt. The Delta II-Heavy is the strongest rocket in the Delta II class. It will use three stages and nine solid-fueled booster rockets to propel Dawn on its way. A 9.5-foot payload fairing will protect the spacecraft from the heat and stresses of launch. Dawn's goal is to characterize the conditions and processes of the solar system's earliest epoch by investigating in detail the largest protoplanets that have remained intact since their formations: asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. They reside in the extensive zone between Mars and Jupiter together with many other smaller bodies, called the asteroid belt. Dawn is scheduled to launch July 7. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller KSC-07pd1512

GOES-R Atlas V Solid Rocket Motor (SRM) Lift and Mate

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – The interstage adapter, or ISA, for NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 mission, or OCO-2, arrives in the environmental enclosure, or clean room, near the top of the mobile service tower at Space Launch Complex 2 on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. OCO-2 is scheduled to launch into a polar Earth orbit aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II 7320-10C rocket in July. The ISA is the interface between the Delta II first and second stages. The second stage engine fits within the ISA. Once in orbit, OCO-2 will collect precise global measurements of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere and provide scientists with a better idea of the chemical compound's impacts on climate change. Scientists will analyze this data to improve our understanding of the natural processes and human activities that regulate the abundance and distribution of this important atmospheric gas. To learn more about OCO-2, visit http://oco.jpl.nasa.gov. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin KSC-2014-2322

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The SPACEHAB payload arrived at Launch Pad 39A this morning and was installed in the Payload Changeout Room. Final preparations for liftoff of the STS-89 mission are under way. Endeavour and its crew of seven are targeted for a Jan. 22 launch. STS-89 will be the eighth Shuttle docking with the Russian Space Station Mir as part of Phase 1 of the International Space Station program. Mission Specialist Andy Thomas, Ph.D., will succeed Mission Specialist David Wolf, M.D., as the last NASA astronaut scheduled for a long-duration stay aboard Mir KSC-97PC1808

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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The SPACEHAB payload arrived at Launch Pad 39A this morning and was installed in the Payload Changeout Room. Final preparations for liftoff of the STS-89 mission are under way. Endeavour and its crew of seven are targeted for a Jan. 22 launch. STS-89 will be the eighth Shuttle docking with the Russian Space Station Mir as part of Phase 1 of the International Space Station program. Mission Specialist Andy Thomas, Ph.D., will succeed Mission Specialist David Wolf, M.D., as the last NASA astronaut scheduled for a long-duration stay aboard Mir

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.