Monday, July 23, 2012

Shuttle Update for July 17

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Shuttle Atlantis:

Shuttle Atlantis is being temporarily stored in the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Atlantis is scheduled to return to Orbiter Processing Facility-2 in August to complete transition and retirement processing. Atlantis is being prepared for public display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex and is scheduled to roll over to the complex in November. The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is targeting a July 2013 grand opening for Atlantis’ new home.

Shuttle Endeavour:

On July 11-13, technicians in Orbiter Processing Facility-2, installed Endeavour’s replica shuttle main engines. Endeavour is being prepared for permanent public display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Its ferry flight to California is targeted for mid-September.

NASA's space shuttle fleet began setting records with its first launch on April 12, 1981 and continued to set high marks of achievement and endurance through 30 years of missions. Starting with Columbia and continuing with Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour, the spacecraft has carried people into orbit repeatedly, launched, recovered and repaired satellites, conducted cutting-edge research and built the largest structure in space, the International Space Station. The final space shuttle mission, STS-135, ended July 21, 2011 when Atlantis rolled to a stop at its home port, NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

As humanity's first reusable spacecraft, the space shuttle pushed the bounds of discovery ever farther, requiring not only advanced technologies but the tremendous effort of a vast workforce. Thousands of civil servants and contractors throughout NASA's field centers and across the nation have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to mission success and the greater goal of space exploration.

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