Space Shuttle Projects, Marshall Space Flight Center

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STS-130 - LAUNCH - Public domain NASA photogrpaph

STS-131 - EOM - Public domain NASA photogrpaph

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – As part of NASA's Ground Systems Development and Operations Program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a large space shuttle-era work platform is being removed from high bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB. The work is part of a center-wide modernization and refurbishment initiative to accommodate NASA’s Space Launch System and a variety of other spacecraft instead of the whole building supporting one design. Visible in the background on the lower left is the space shuttle Atlantis being readied for its move to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. The Ground Systems Development and Operations Program is developing the necessary ground systems, infrastructure and operational approaches required to safely process, assemble, transport and launch the next generation of rockets and spacecraft in support of NASA’s exploration objectives. Future work also will replace the antiquated communications, power and vehicle access resources with modern efficient systems. Some of the utilities and systems slated for replacement have been used since the VAB opened in 1965. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/ground/index.html Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann KSC-2012-5962

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space shuttle Discovery, secured to a crawler-transporter, slowly moves away from Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 3.4-mile trek, called rollback, to the Vehicle Assembly Building began at 10:48 p.m. and took about eight hours. Next, Discovery's external fuel tank will be examined and foam reapplied where 89 sensors were installed on the tank's aluminum skin for an instrumented tanking test on Dec. 17. The sensors were used to measure changes in the tank as super-cold propellants were pumped in and drained out. Data and analysis from the test will be used to determine what caused the tops of two, 21-foot-long support beams, called stringers, on the outside of the intertank to crack during fueling on Nov. 5. Discovery's next launch opportunity to the International Space Station on the STS-133 mission is no earlier than Feb. 3, 2011. For more information on STS-133, visit www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts133/. Photo credit: NASA/Frank Michaux KSC-2010-5927

Enterprise at Vandenberg AFB SCL-6 - DF-ST-86-09424

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, workers use an overhead crane to lift the first stage of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket into the Vertical Integration Facility at Launch Complex 41. NASA's Juno spacecraft is scheduled to launch aboard an Atlas V from Cape Canaveral, Fla. Aug. 5.The solar-powered spacecraft will orbit Jupiter's poles 33 times to find out more about the gas giant's origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere and investigate the existence of a solid planetary core. For more information visit: www.nasa.gov/juno. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller KSC-2011-4377

Space Shuttle Projects, Marshall Space Flight Center

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Summary

The Space Shuttle main propulsion system includes three major elements. One of those elements is the External Tank (ET). The ET holds over one-half million gallons of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen that fuel the main engines.

Space Shuttle Program

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.