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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Members of the Mission Management Team, or MMT, participate in a news briefing following the conclusion of the team's meeting. The meeting continued the discussion of the problems experienced with the space shuttle Atlantis STS-122 external tank's engine cutoff sensor system that arose during tanking on Dec. 6. From left are Allard Beutel, Kennedy Space Center news chief and briefing moderator; Wayne Hale, Space Shuttle Program manager; LeRoy Cain, MMT chairman; Doug Lyons, STS-122 launch director; and U.S. Air Force Capt. Chris Lovett, 45th Weather Squadron. An announcement was made during the briefing that the STS-122 launch, originally set for Dec. 6, was rescheduled to 3:21 p.m. Dec. 9. Atlantis will carry the Columbus Laboratory, the European Space Agency's largest contribution to the construction of the International Space Station. It will support scientific and technological research in a microgravity environment. Permanently attached to the Harmony node of the space station, the laboratory will carry out experiments in materials science, fluid physics and biosciences, as well as perform a number of technological applications. Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston KSC-07pd3587
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Members of the Mission Management Team, or MMT, participate in a news briefing following the conclusion of the team's meeting. The meeting continued the discussion of the problems experienced with the space shuttle Atlantis STS-122 external tank's engine cutoff sensor system that arose during tanking on Dec. 6. From left are Allard Beutel, Kennedy Space Center news chief and briefing moderator; Wayne Hale, Space Shuttle Program manager; LeRoy Cain, MMT chairman; Doug Lyons, STS-122 launch director; and U.S. Air Force Capt. Chris Lovett, 45th Weather Squadron. An announcement was made during the briefing that the STS-122 launch, originally set for Dec. 6, was rescheduled to 3:21 p.m. Dec. 9. Atlantis will carry the Columbus Laboratory, the European Space Agency's largest contribution to the construction of the International Space Station. It will support scientific and technological research in a microgravity environment. Permanently attached to the Harmony node of the space station, the laboratory will carry out experiments in materials science, fluid physics and biosciences, as well as perform a number of technological applications. Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston
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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