KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- External tank No. 120 is offloaded from the Pegasus barge, which is docked at the Launch Complex 39 Area turn basin. The tank will be moved to the Vehicle Assembly Building and lifted into a checkout cell. The barge carried the tank from the Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans, making the journey around the Florida peninsula in tow by the JA Bisso II tugboat, to Port Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center. ET-120 will be used for launching Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-120 in October. NASA/Amanda Diller KSC-07pd2135

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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- External tank No. 117 is ready for offloading from the Pegasus barge in the turn basin near Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building. ET-117 arrived aboard the barge after its voyage around the Florida Peninsula from the Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans. The tank is slated for mission STS-118, which is targeted for launch in early August. ET-117 will be moved into a checkout cell in high bay 2 of the VAB for processing. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller KSC-07pd0978

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – At Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, a crane lifts the Taurus XL Stage 0 motor to move it to a flatbed truck. The motor will be transported to Orbital Sciences' Hangar 1555. The Taurus XL will launch NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory, or OCO, spacecraft targeted for Jan. 15. The OCO is a new Earth-orbiting mission sponsored by NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder Program. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin, VAFB KSC-08pd3541

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The United Launch Alliance Atlas V first stage booster for NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes mission arrives at the Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center, or ASOC, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The Radiation Belt Storm Probes, or RBSP, mission will help us understand the sun’s influence on Earth and near-Earth space by studying the Earth’s radiation belts on various scales of space and time. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/rbsp. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann KSC-2012-3391

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The United Launch Alliance Atlas V first stage booster that will boost the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, or TDRS-L, spacecraft into orbit is being transported from the hangar at the Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to Launch Complex 41. TDRS-L is the second of three next-generation satellites designed to ensure vital operational continuity for the NASA Space Network. It is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 41 atop an Atlas V rocket in January 2014. The current Tracking and Data Relay Satellite system consists of eight in-orbit satellites distributed to provide near continuous information relay service to missions such as the Hubble Space Telescope and International Space Station. For more information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/content/tracking-and-data-relay-satellite-tdrs/ Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-2013-4391

EXPLORATION SCIENCES BUILDING GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- External tank No. 120 is offloaded from the Pegasus barge, which is docked at the Launch Complex 39 Area turn basin. The tank will be moved to the Vehicle Assembly Building and lifted into a checkout cell. The barge carried the tank from the Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans, making the journey around the Florida peninsula in tow by the JA Bisso II tugboat, to Port Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center. ET-120 will be used for launching Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-120 in October. NASA/Amanda Diller KSC-07pd2135

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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- External tank No. 120 is offloaded from the Pegasus barge, which is docked at the Launch Complex 39 Area turn basin. The tank will be moved to the Vehicle Assembly Building and lifted into a checkout cell. The barge carried the tank from the Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans, making the journey around the Florida peninsula in tow by the JA Bisso II tugboat, to Port Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center. ET-120 will be used for launching Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-120 in October. NASA/Amanda Diller

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.