The Space Shuttle Discovery on its Mobile Launcher Platform slowly moves through the high bay doors of the Vehicle Assembly Building en route to Launch Pad 39A, where Discovery is scheduled to lift off on the STS-82 mission on Feb. 11. A seven-member crew will perform the second servicing of the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope (HST) during the 10-day STS-82 mission.

ikenbot:

Waterway to Orbit

Credit & Copyright: James Vernacotola

The 32nd shuttle mission to the International Space Station, STS-130, left planet Earth on February 8, 2010. Its early morning launch to orbit from Kennedy Space Center’s pad 39A followed the long, graceful, eastward arc seen in this 2 minute time exposure.

kateoplis: Enterprise, riding piggyback on a Boeing 747, over NYC, 1983.

sarahwrotethat:

usagov:

Image description: At 5:57 a.m. EDT on July 21, 2011, space shuttle Atlantis landed for the final time at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center after 200 orbits around Earth and a journey of 5,284,862 miles on the STS-135 mission and final flight for the Space Shuttle Program.

Photo by NASA

It’s really worth clicking through to the gallery. An era I wish wasn’t ending, not without a worthy successor.

Agreed.

nevver: Can we go to Mars now?

inothernews:

A TAIL OF TOO PRETTY   The space shuttle Atlantis, appearing like a bean sprout against clouds and city lights, on its way home, as photographed by the Expedition 28 crew of the International Space Station on July 21. Airglow over Earth can be seen in the background. The Atlantis returned to Earth marking the end of the space shuttle era when its wheels touched down for the last time at the Kennedy Space Center.  [Photo: NASA via EPA / MSNBC.com]

Liftoff

Space shuttle Atlantis launches into history from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, July 8, 2011.

Aboard are four astronauts; Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim delivering the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module packed with supplies and spare parts for the orbiting outpost.

[Image Credit: NASA / Fletcher Hildreth]

T-1 Hour and Counting

This image of space shuttle Atlantis was taken shortly after the rotating service structure was rolled back at Launch Pad 39A, Thursday, July 7, 2011. Atlantis is set to liftoff today, Friday, July 8, on the final flight of the Space Shuttle Program.

Live launch feed here.

[Image Credit: NASA / Bill Ingalls]

theatlantic:

The History of the Space Shuttle

From its first launch 30 years ago to its final launch scheduled for next Friday, NASA’s Space Shuttle program has seen moments of dizzying inspiration and of crushing disappointment. When next week’s launch is complete, the program will have sent up 135 missions, ferrying more than 350 humans and thousands of tons of material and equipment into low Earth orbit. Fourteen astronauts have lost their lives along the way — the missions have always been risky, the engineering complex, the hazards extreme. As we near the end of the program, I’d like to look back at the past few decades of shuttle development and missions as we await the next steps toward human space flight.

Above: Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off from Kennedy Space Center, on April 12, 1981. Commander John Young and pilot Robert Crippen were onboard STS-1, the first orbital flight of the Space Shuttle program. (Reuters/NASA/KSC)

See more excellent photos at In Focus