KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- A crane lifts the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), the primary payload on STS-99, from a payload canister used to transport it to Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) bay 2 to the payload bay of the orbiter Endeavour. The SRTM consists of a specially modified radar system that will gather data for the most accurate and complete topographic map of the Earth's surface that has ever been assembled. SRTM will make use of radar interferometry, wherein two radar images are taken from slightly different locations. Differences between these images allow for the calculation of surface elevation. The SRTM hardware includes one radar antenna in the Shuttle payload bay and a second radar antenna attached to the end of a mast extended 60 meters (195 feet) from the shuttle. STS-99 is scheduled to launch Sept. 16 at 8:47 a.m. from Launch Pad 39A KSC-99pp0972

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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The doors of the payload canister open in the Payload Changeout Room (PCR) at Launch Pad 39A to reveal the SPACEHAB Double Module (bottom) and Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC). Part of the Rotating Service Structure, the PCR is an environmentally controlled facility supporting cargo delivery to the pad and vertical installation in the orbiter cargo bay. The primary payloads on mission STS-101, the module and ICC contain internal logistics and resupply cargo for restoring full redundancy to the International Space Station power system in preparation for the arrival of the next pressurized module, the Russian-built Zvezda. The payloads will be transferred to Space Shuttle Atlantis after Atlantis rolls out to the pad. Launch of Atlantis on mission STS-101 is scheduled no earlier than April 17, 2000 KSC00pp0370

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE LOADING OF SMR HARDWARE FOR GSFC DEPARTURE

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – On NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the canister with space shuttle Atlantis’ Hubble Space Telescope payload arrives inside the Canister Rotation Facility. The payload comprises four carriers holding various equipment for the mission. After rotation to horizontal, the canister will be transported back to Kennedy’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility where the hardware will be stored until a new target launch date can be set for Atlantis’ STS-125 mission in 2009. Atlantis’ October target launch date was delayed after a device on board Hubble used in the storage and transmission of science data to Earth shut down on Sept. 27. Replacing the broken device will be added to Atlantis’ servicing mission to the telescope Photo credit: NASA/Tim Jacobs KSC-08pd3158

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – In the Vehicle Assembly Building's High Bay 4 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Ares I-X interstage 1 for the upper stage simulator is lowered onto the forward assembly. It will be mated with the frustum on top of the forward assembly. Ares I-X is the flight test vehicle for the Ares I, a component of the Constellation Program. Ares I is the essential core of a safe, reliable, cost-effective space transportation system that eventually will carry crewed missions back to the moon, on to Mars and out into the solar system. Ares I-X is targeted for launch in August 2009. Photo credit: NASA/Tim Jacobs KSC-2009-3811

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - On Launch Pad 17-A, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the Mars Exploration Rover 2 (MER-2), inside the transport canister, is moved toward the platform in the launch tower. MER-2 will be mated to the Delta II rocket for launch. MER-2 is one of NASA's twin Mars Exploration Rovers designed to study the history of water on Mars. These robotic geologists are equipped with a robotic arm, a drilling tool, three spectrometers, and four pairs of cameras that allow them to have a human-like, 3D view of the terrain. Each rover could travel as far as 100 meters in one day to act as Mars scientists' eyes and hands, exploring an environment where humans can't yet go. MER-2 is scheduled to launch no earlier than June 8 as MER-A.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --As the sun rises over Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, United Launch Alliance technicians prepare to raise one of three Delta II solid rocket motors on the pad at Space Launch Complex-2 West (SLC-2W). Scheduled to launch in June, the Delta II rocket will carry NASA's Aquarius satellite into low Earth orbit. Aquarius' mission will be to provide monthly maps of global changes in sea surface salinity. By measuring ocean salinity from space, Aquarius will provide new insights into how the massive natural exchange of freshwater between the ocean, atmosphere and sea ice influences ocean circulation, weather and climate. Also going up with the satellite are optical and thermal cameras, a microwave radiometer and the SAC-D spacecraft, which were developed with the help of institutions in Italy, France, Canada and Argentina. Photo credit: VAFB/30th Space Wing KSC-2011-2190

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- A crane lifts the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), the primary payload on STS-99, from a payload canister used to transport it to Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) bay 2 to the payload bay of the orbiter Endeavour. The SRTM consists of a specially modified radar system that will gather data for the most accurate and complete topographic map of the Earth's surface that has ever been assembled. SRTM will make use of radar interferometry, wherein two radar images are taken from slightly different locations. Differences between these images allow for the calculation of surface elevation. The SRTM hardware includes one radar antenna in the Shuttle payload bay and a second radar antenna attached to the end of a mast extended 60 meters (195 feet) from the shuttle. STS-99 is scheduled to launch Sept. 16 at 8:47 a.m. from Launch Pad 39A KSC-99pp0972

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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- A crane lifts the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), the primary payload on STS-99, from a payload canister used to transport it to Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) bay 2 to the payload bay of the orbiter Endeavour. The SRTM consists of a specially modified radar system that will gather data for the most accurate and complete topographic map of the Earth's surface that has ever been assembled. SRTM will make use of radar interferometry, wherein two radar images are taken from slightly different locations. Differences between these images allow for the calculation of surface elevation. The SRTM hardware includes one radar antenna in the Shuttle payload bay and a second radar antenna attached to the end of a mast extended 60 meters (195 feet) from the shuttle. STS-99 is scheduled to launch Sept. 16 at 8:47 a.m. from Launch Pad 39A

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.