KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - The second floor of the Thermal Protection System Facility sustained significant damage from Hurricane Frances. The storm's path over Florida took it through Cape Canaveral and KSC property during Labor Day weekend. Located in Launch Complex 39, the facility is used to manufacture both internal and external insulation products for the Space Shuttle orbiters. KSC-04pd1726
Summary
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - The second floor of the Thermal Protection System Facility sustained significant damage from Hurricane Frances. The storm's path over Florida took it through Cape Canaveral and KSC property during Labor Day weekend. Located in Launch Complex 39, the facility is used to manufacture both internal and external insulation products for the Space Shuttle orbiters.
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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