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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. --   The payload canister arrives under the payload changeout room in the rotating service structure on Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.  The canister holds the payloads for mission STS-121: the multi-purpose logistics module Leonardo, with supplies and equipment for the International Space Station; the lightweight multi-purpose experiment support structure carrier; and the integrated cargo carrier, with the mobile transporter reel assembly and a spare pump module. The payload canister will be lifted into the changeout room where the payloads will be transferred to Space Shuttle Discovery's payload bay.  Discovery is scheduled to launch on mission STS-121 from Launch Pad 39B in a window that opens July 1 and extends to July 19. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-06pd0852

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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The payload canister arrives under the payload changeout room in the rotating service structure on Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The canister holds the payloads for mission STS-121: the multi-purpose logistics module Leonardo, with supplies and equipment for the International Space Station; the lightweight multi-purpose experiment support structure carrier; and the integrated cargo carrier, with the mobile transporter reel assembly and a spare pump module. The payload canister will be lifted into the changeout room where the payloads will be transferred to Space Shuttle Discovery's payload bay. Discovery is scheduled to launch on mission STS-121 from Launch Pad 39B in a window that opens July 1 and extends to July 19. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-06pd0852

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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The payload canister arrives under the payload changeout room in the rotating service structure on Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The canister holds the payloads for mission STS-121: the multi-purpose logistics module Leonardo, with supplies and equipment for the International Space Station; the lightweight multi-purpose experiment support structure carrier; and the integrated cargo carrier, with the mobile transporter reel assembly and a spare pump module. The payload canister will be lifted into the changeout room where the payloads will be transferred to Space Shuttle Discovery's payload bay. Discovery is scheduled to launch on mission STS-121 from Launch Pad 39B in a window that opens July 1 and extends to July 19. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

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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17/05/2006
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