![]() Image credit: NASA › View larger imageĭuring the 1980s, Kennedy Space Center made a critical shift in focus. Image above: Space shuttle Challenger makes a surrealistic impression as it moves through the fog on its way down the 3.5-mile crawlerway en route to Launch Pad 39A on Nov. Image above: The STS-1 space shuttle team celebrates a successful liftoff of Columbia from Launch Pad 39A a few seconds past 7 a.m. Image above: Astronauts Bob Crippen, left, and John Young board the emergency pad escape system known as the "slidewire" on Jan. Image above: Liftoff of the Delta rocket carrying NASA's Solar Maximum Mission on Feb. ![]() A spectacular liftoff was the reward for each processing flow, and upon landing, the sequence began once again.Image above: Space shuttle Columbia sits on Launch Pad 39A on March 5, 1981, before its maiden flight on STS-1. Finally, the completed launch vehicle and its mobile launcher platform rolled out to the launch pad atop a sturdy, slow-moving crawler-transporter. The shuttle then was towed to the nearby Vehicle Assembly Building, where it was joined to its tank and boosters. Once a shuttle was returned to its bay in the orbiter processing facility after landing, teams checked, refurbished or installed hardware for the flight ahead. Multiple vehicles could be in various stages of processing at any given time. To meet the rigorous demands of spaceflight, each vehicle element - the orbiter, external fuel tank and boosters - and all subsystems underwent meticulous maintenance and preparation before each flight. Because a returning shuttle orbiter was essentially an unpowered glider, there were no second chances - every touchdown had to be perfect. Missions typically lasted one to two weeks, concluding with an hourlong reentry descent through Earth's atmosphere and a precision landing. Of those missions, 78 ended with a Kennedy landing 54 concluded with a touchdown on the dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base in California and one landed at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.Įach mission began with a thundering liftoff as the shuttle's twin solid rocket boosters ignited, pushing the vehicle with its crew and cargo beyond the bounds of gravity and into the hostile environment of space. Each one began at Kennedy's Launch Complex 39. › View larger image NASA's shuttle fleet - Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour - flew a total of 135 missions. Image above: Shuttle Discovery touches down on Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility, completing the STS-133 mission. Image above: Shuttle Endeavour is silhouetted against the dawn sky as it rolls to Launch Pad 39A for STS-130 launch preparations. Space shuttle Atlantis completed the program on July 21, 2011, wrapping up the STS-135 mission with a predawn touchdown on the same runway where Columbia first arrived more than 30 years earlier. ![]() Image credit: NASA › View larger imageīeginning with space shuttle Columbia's 1979 delivery to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the center has been home to each of the five flown shuttle orbiters for the duration of the Space Shuttle Program. Image above: Space shuttle Atlantis launches Jon the STS-135 mission, the final flight of the Space Shuttle Program. ![]()
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