KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. -- Space Shuttle Atlantis begins rolling out of the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39A. The Shuttle has been in the VAB undergoing tests on the solid rocket booster cables. A prior extensive evaluation of NASA’s SRB cable inventory on the shelf revealed conductor damage in four (of about 200) cables. Shuttle managers decided to prove the integrity of the system tunnel cables already on Atlantis, causing return of the Shuttle to the VAB a week ago. Launch of Atlantis on STS-98 has been rescheduled to Feb. 7 at 6:11 p.m. EST KSC01pp0179
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. -- Space Shuttle Atlantis begins rolling out of the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39A. The Shuttle has been in the VAB undergoing tests on the solid rocket booster cables. A prior extensive evaluation of NASA’s SRB cable inventory on the shelf revealed conductor damage in four (of about 200) cables. Shuttle managers decided to prove the integrity of the system tunnel cables already on Atlantis, causing return of the Shuttle to the VAB a week ago. Launch of Atlantis on STS-98 has been rescheduled to Feb. 7 at 6:11 p.m. EST
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.
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