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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Space shuttle Discovery, installed on the mobile launcher platform atop the crawler-transporter, moves out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to  Launch Pad 39A. First motion out of the Vehicle Assembly Building was at 2:07 a.m. EDT Aug. 4. Rollout was delayed approximately 2 hours due to lightning in the area.  The 3.4-mile journey was slower than usual as technicians stopped several times to clear mud from the crawler's treads and bearings.   Discovery's 13-day flight will deliver a new crew member and 33,000 pounds of equipment to the International Space Station. The equipment includes science and storage racks, a freezer to store research samples, a new sleeping compartment and the COLBERT treadmill.  Launch of Discovery on its STS-128 mission is targeted for late August.  Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis KSC-2009-4399

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Space shuttle Discovery, installed on the mobile launcher platform atop the crawler-transporter, moves out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to Launch Pad 39A. First motion out of the Vehicle Assembly Building was at 2:07 a.m. EDT Aug. 4. Rollout was delayed approximately 2 hours due to lightning in the area. The 3.4-mile journey was slower than usual as technicians stopped several times to clear mud from the crawler's treads and bearings. Discovery's 13-day flight will deliver a new crew member and 33,000 pounds of equipment to the International Space Station. The equipment includes science and storage racks, a freezer to store research samples, a new sleeping compartment and the COLBERT treadmill. Launch of Discovery on its STS-128 mission is targeted for late August. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis KSC-2009-4399

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Space shuttle Discovery, installed on the mobile launcher platform atop the crawler-transporter, moves out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to Launch Pad 39A. First motion out of the Vehicle Assembly Building was at 2:07 a.m. EDT Aug. 4. Rollout was delayed approximately 2 hours due to lightning in the area. The 3.4-mile journey was slower than usual as technicians stopped several times to clear mud from the crawler's treads and bearings. Discovery's 13-day flight will deliver a new crew member and 33,000 pounds of equipment to the International Space Station. The equipment includes science and storage racks, a freezer to store research samples, a new sleeping compartment and the COLBERT treadmill. Launch of Discovery on its STS-128 mission is targeted for late August. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis

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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04/08/2009
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