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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The STS-122 crew poses for a group portrait near Launch Pad 39B following a training session on the operation of the M-113 armored personnel carrier. An M-113 will be available to transport the crew to safety in the event of an emergency on the pad before their launch. From left are Mission Specialists Rex Walheim and Stanley Love; Commander Steve Frick; Pilot Alan Poindexter; and Mission Specialists Leland Melvin, Leopold Eyharts and Hans Schlegel. Eyharts and Schlegel are with the European Space Agency. Eyharts will remain on the International Space Station as a flight engineer for Expedition 16 following the STS-122 mission. The crew is participating in Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test activities, a standard part of launch preparations. The TCDT provides astronauts and ground crews with equipment familiarization, emergency egress training and a simulated launch countdown. On mission STS-122, Atlantis will deliver the European Space Agency's Columbus module to the International Space Station. Columbus is a multifunctional, pressurized laboratory that will be permanently attached to U.S. Node 2, called Harmony, and will expand the research facilities aboard the station. Launch is targeted for Dec. 6. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-07pd3351

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A nose cone rests on the floor of a processing facility at Space Launch Complex-40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida awaiting installation on a Space Exploration Technologies Dragon capsule. Operations to attach the capsule to the company’s Falcon 9 rocket are in progress. Known as SpaceX, the launch will be the company's second demonstration test flight for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, or COTS. During the flight, the capsule will conduct a series of check-out procedures to test and prove its systems, including rendezvous and berthing with the International Space Station. If the capsule performs as planned, the NanoRacks-CubeLabs Module-9 experiments and other cargo aboard Dragon will be transferred to the station. The cargo includes food, water and provisions for the station’s Expedition crews, such as clothing, batteries and computer equipment. Under COTS, NASA has partnered with two private companies to provide resupply missions to the station. The launch is scheduled for 9:38 a.m. EDT on May 7. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/spacex. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann KSC-2012-2568

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, space shuttle Discovery's STS-133 astronauts prepare to give statements to the media on the Shuttle Landing Facility runway after arriving in T-38 jets. From left, are Mission Specialists Michael Barratt, Alvin Drew and Steve Bowen, Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Eric Boe, and Mission Specialist Nicole Stott. In the days leading up to their launch to the International Space Station, the crew members will check the fit of their launch-and-entry suits, review launch-day procedures, receive weather briefings and remain medically quarantined to prevent sickness. This will be the second launch attempt for Discovery's crew, following a scrub in November 2010 due to a hydrogen gas leak at the ground umbilical carrier plate (GUCP) as well as modifications to the external fuel tank's intertank support beams, called stringers. Scheduled to lift off Feb. 24 at 4:50 p.m. EST, Discovery and its crew will deliver the Permanent Multipurpose Module, packed with supplies and critical spare parts, as well as Robonaut 2, the dexterous humanoid astronaut helper, to the orbiting outpost. For more information on the STS-133 mission, visit www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts133/. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-2011-1514

DC-9 AIRPLANE PRESS FLIGHT. Public domain image, NASA.

STS-132 crew during ingress/egress training

Smokey the Bear Toy in the Node 1

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ISS032-E-011654 (3 Aug. 2012) --- Smokey Bear floats freely near crew insignias placed in the Unity node of the International Space Station. On May 15, 2012, Smokey traveled aboard the Soyuz spacecraft with NASA astronaut Joe Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin to the space station. As a recognized symbol for wildland fire prevention, his presence on the orbiting complex also highlights the many areas of active space station research related to Earth observations, plant growth and combustion and materials sciences, as well as existing spinoff technologies in these areas. NASA, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the Texas Forest Service are teaming up to celebrate Smokey's 68th birthday Aug. 9 at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

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