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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -  On Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the payload canister waits for adjusted guide shoes to be attached before being lifted to the payload changeout room for the second time.  The first attempt encountered problems when Teflon pads on “shoes” attached to the outside of the canister that go onto guide rails to help the canister into the room didn’t fit properly.  The two shoes were removed, slightly shaved down so that they would fit into the rails and put back on the canister. The changeout room is the enclosed, environmentally controlled portion of the rotating service structure that supports cargo delivery to the pad and subsequent vertical installation into the shuttle’s payload bay. Launch of Atlantis is targeted for Oct. 10.   Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann KSC-08pd2787

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - On Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the payload canister waits for adjusted guide shoes to be attached before being lifted to the payload changeout room for the second time. The first attempt encountered problems when Teflon pads on “shoes” attached to the outside of the canister that go onto guide rails to help the canister into the room didn’t fit properly. The two shoes were removed, slightly shaved down so that they would fit into the rails and put back on the canister. The changeout room is the enclosed, environmentally controlled portion of the rotating service structure that supports cargo delivery to the pad and subsequent vertical installation into the shuttle’s payload bay. Launch of Atlantis is targeted for Oct. 10. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann KSC-08pd2787

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - On Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the payload canister waits for adjusted guide shoes to be attached before being lifted to the payload changeout room for the second time. The first attempt encountered problems when Teflon pads on “shoes” attached to the outside of the canister that go onto guide rails to help the canister into the room didn’t fit properly. The two shoes were removed, slightly shaved down so that they would fit into the rails and put back on the canister. The changeout room is the enclosed, environmentally controlled portion of the rotating service structure that supports cargo delivery to the pad and subsequent vertical installation into the shuttle’s payload bay. Launch of Atlantis is targeted for Oct. 10. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

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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21/09/2008
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NASA
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