A nighttime view of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Orbiter OV-101 Enterprise on the launch tower as it would appear prior to launch. The Enterprise is not equipped to be launched but is being used as a model at the newly constructed space shuttle launch facilities
Summary
The original finding aid described this photograph as:
Base: Vandenberg Air Force Base
State: California (CA)
Country: United States Of America (USA)
Scene Camera Operator: TSGT James Pearson
Release Status: Released to Public
Combined Military Service Digital Photographic Files
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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