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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -  On NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility, the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer team gets a weather briefing.  Seated from right are Steve Fossett, the pilot; Ron Feile, lead air traffic controller at the Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility that will serve as the launch site; Kathy Winters, 45th Space Wing weather officer; Jim Ball, manager of KSC Spaceport Development; and other GlobalFlyer team members.  Fossett will pilot the aircraft on a record-breaking attempt by flying solo, non-stop without refueling, to surpass the current record for the longest flight of any aircraft.  Fossett is expected to take off from the Shuttle Landing Facility early Tuesday morning.  Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller KSC-06pd0202

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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - On NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility, the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer team gets a weather briefing. Seated from right are Steve Fossett, the pilot; Ron Feile, lead air traffic controller at the Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility that will serve as the launch site; Kathy Winters, 45th Space Wing weather officer; Jim Ball, manager of KSC Spaceport Development; and other GlobalFlyer team members. Fossett will pilot the aircraft on a record-breaking attempt by flying solo, non-stop without refueling, to surpass the current record for the longest flight of any aircraft. Fossett is expected to take off from the Shuttle Landing Facility early Tuesday morning. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller KSC-06pd0202

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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - On NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility, the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer team gets a weather briefing. Seated from right are Steve Fossett, the pilot; Ron Feile, lead air traffic controller at the Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility that will serve as the launch site; Kathy Winters, 45th Space Wing weather officer; Jim Ball, manager of KSC Spaceport Development; and other GlobalFlyer team members. Fossett will pilot the aircraft on a record-breaking attempt by flying solo, non-stop without refueling, to surpass the current record for the longest flight of any aircraft. Fossett is expected to take off from the Shuttle Landing Facility early Tuesday morning. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

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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06/02/2006
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NASA
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