KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- STS-98 Mission Commander Kenneth Cockrell waves to his family at the Shuttle Landing Facility after the crew's arrival Sunday to complete preparations for launch.; In the background, Mission Specialist Robert Curbeam (left) and Pilot Mark Polansky are also caught waving.; The crew is preparing to board a bus for transport to the Operations and Checkout Building where the crew quarters at KSC is located. Crew members Thomas Jones and Marsha Ivins, both mission specialists, are not in plain view.; STS-98 is the seventh construction flight to the International Space Station, carrying as payload the U.S. Lab Destiny, a key element in the construction of the ISS. Launch of STS-98 is scheduled for Feb. 7 at 6:11 p.m. EST KSC01padig044
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- STS-98 Mission Commander Kenneth Cockrell waves to his family at the Shuttle Landing Facility after the crew's arrival Sunday to complete preparations for launch.; In the background, Mission Specialist Robert Curbeam (left) and Pilot Mark Polansky are also caught waving.; The crew is preparing to board a bus for transport to the Operations and Checkout Building where the crew quarters at KSC is located. Crew members Thomas Jones and Marsha Ivins, both mission specialists, are not in plain view.; STS-98 is the seventh construction flight to the International Space Station, carrying as payload the U.S. Lab Destiny, a key element in the construction of the ISS. Launch of STS-98 is scheduled for Feb. 7 at 6:11 p.m. EST
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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