STS127-S-040 (15 July 2009) --- Space Shuttle Endeavour and its seven-member STS-127 crew head toward Earth orbit and rendezvous with the International Space Station. Liftoff was on time at 6:03 p.m. (EDT) on July 15, 2009 from launch pad 39A at NASA?s Kennedy Space Center. Onboard are astronauts Mark Polansky, commander; Doug Hurley, pilot; Christopher Cassidy, Tom Marshburn, Dave Wolf, Tim Kopra and Canadian Space Agency?s Julie Payette, all mission specialists. Kopra will join Expedition 20 in progress to serve as a flight engineer aboard the ISS. Endeavour will deliver the Japanese Experiment Module's Exposed Facility and the Experiment Logistics Module-Exposed Section in the final of three flights dedicated to the assembly of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory complex on the space station. sts127-s-040

Similar

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. --- On Pad 17-B on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the solid rocket booster is raised from its transporter toward a vertical position. When it has been raised, the booster will be lifted into the mobile service tower for mating with the Delta II rocket that will launch NASA's Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST, spacecraft. Two other boosters are already in place. A series of nine strap-on solid rocket motors will help power the first stage. Because the Delta rocket is configured as a Delta II 7920 Heavy, the boosters are larger than those used on the standard configuration. The GLAST is a powerful space observatory that will explore the Universe's ultimate frontier, where nature harnesses forces and energies far beyond anything possible on Earth; probe some of science's deepest questions, such as what our Universe is made of, and search for new laws of physics; explain how black holes accelerate jets of material to nearly light speed; and help crack the mystery of stupendously powerful explosions known as gamma-ray bursts. Launch is currently planned for May 16 from Pad 17-B. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann KSC-08pd0865

GOES-R Atlas V Centaur Transport from DOCC to VIF at Pad 41

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39A, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden announces that NASA has just signed a lease agreement with Space Exploration Technologies SpaceX of Hawthorne, Calif., for use and operation of Launch Complex 39A. SpaceX will use Launch Complex 39A for rockets such as the Falcon Heavy, currently under development. Both launch pad 39A and 39B were originally built for the Apollo/Saturn V rockets that launched American astronauts on their historic journeys to the moon and later modified to support the 30-year shuttle program. Pad 39B is now being modified by NASA to support the Space Launch System SLS rocket boosting the Orion spacecraft part of the agency’s plan to explore beyond low-Earth orbit. To learn more about Launch Pad 39A visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/launch/launch-complex39-toc.html Photo credit: NASA/Dan Casper KSC-2014-2100

STS-135 - LAUNCH - Public domain NASA photogrpaph

Antares Rocket Preparation. NASA public domain image colelction.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – United Launch Alliance, or ULA, workers monitor the progress as the ULA Delta IV Heavy rocket for Exploration Flight Test-1 is lifted to the vertical position in the mobile service tower on the pad at Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The Delta IV Heavy is being readied to launch Orion on its first flight test. During its first flight test, Orion will travel farther into space than any human spacecraft has gone in more than 40 years. The data gathered during the flight will influence design decisions, validate existing computer models and innovative new approaches to space systems development, as well as reduce overall mission risks and costs for later Orion flights. Liftoff of Orion on the first flight test is planned for December 2014. Photo credit: NASA/Daniel Casper KSC-2014-4182

STS127-S-040 (15 July 2009) --- Space Shuttle Endeavour and its seven-member STS-127 crew head toward Earth orbit and rendezvous with the International Space Station. Liftoff was on time at 6:03 p.m. (EDT) on July 15, 2009 from launch pad 39A at NASA?s Kennedy Space Center. Onboard are astronauts Mark Polansky, commander; Doug Hurley, pilot; Christopher Cassidy, Tom Marshburn, Dave Wolf, Tim Kopra and Canadian Space Agency?s Julie Payette, all mission specialists. Kopra will join Expedition 20 in progress to serve as a flight engineer aboard the ISS. Endeavour will deliver the Japanese Experiment Module's Exposed Facility and the Experiment Logistics Module-Exposed Section in the final of three flights dedicated to the assembly of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory complex on the space station. sts127-s-040

description

Summary

STS127-S-040 (15 July 2009) --- Space Shuttle Endeavour and its seven-member STS-127 crew head toward Earth orbit and rendezvous with the International Space Station. Liftoff was on time at 6:03 p.m. (EDT) on July 15, 2009 from launch pad 39A at NASA?s Kennedy Space Center. Onboard are astronauts Mark Polansky, commander; Doug Hurley, pilot; Christopher Cassidy, Tom Marshburn, Dave Wolf, Tim Kopra and Canadian Space Agency?s Julie Payette, all mission specialists. Kopra will join Expedition 20 in progress to serve as a flight engineer aboard the ISS. Endeavour will deliver the Japanese Experiment Module's Exposed Facility and the Experiment Logistics Module-Exposed Section in the final of three flights dedicated to the assembly of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory complex on the space station.

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.