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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – On Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, workers begin closing the Rotating Service Structure, or RSS, around space shuttle Discovery in order to replace the Tyvek covers protecting the shuttle's nose thrusters.   The service structure provides weather protection and access to the space shuttle at the launch pad. First motion was at approximately 4:15 p.m. EDT. The work to cover the thrusters is expected to take six to seven hours. When completed, the team will move the RSS to the park position in preparation for Discovery's targeted launch attempt on Aug. 28 at 11:59 p.m. EDT. The 13-day mission 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. STS-128 will be Discovery's 37th mission and the 30th shuttle flight dedicated to station assembly and maintenance.  Photo credit: NASA KSC-2009-4867

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – On Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, workers begin closing the Rotating Service Structure, or RSS, around space shuttle Discovery in order to replace the Tyvek covers protecting the shuttle's nose thrusters. The service structure provides weather protection and access to the space shuttle at the launch pad. First motion was at approximately 4:15 p.m. EDT. The work to cover the thrusters is expected to take six to seven hours. When completed, the team will move the RSS to the park position in preparation for Discovery's targeted launch attempt on Aug. 28 at 11:59 p.m. EDT. The 13-day mission 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. STS-128 will be Discovery's 37th mission and the 30th shuttle flight dedicated to station assembly and maintenance. Photo credit: NASA KSC-2009-4867

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – On Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, workers begin closing the Rotating Service Structure, or RSS, around space shuttle Discovery in order to replace the Tyvek covers protecting the shuttle's nose thrusters. The service structure provides weather protection and access to the space shuttle at the launch pad. First motion was at approximately 4:15 p.m. EDT. The work to cover the thrusters is expected to take six to seven hours. When completed, the team will move the RSS to the park position in preparation for Discovery's targeted launch attempt on Aug. 28 at 11:59 p.m. EDT. The 13-day mission 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. STS-128 will be Discovery's 37th mission and the 30th shuttle flight dedicated to station assembly and maintenance. Photo credit: NASA

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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27/08/2009
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