CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – After arrival at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, STS-119 Commander Lee Archambault greets the media. He and other crew members explained their roles in the upcoming mission and answered reporters' questions. Next to Archambault, from left, are Pilot Tony Antonelli, and Mission Specialists Joseph Acaba, Steve Swanson, Richard Arnold, John Phillips and Koichi Wakata. Wakata represents the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and will fly on the mission to the International Space Station to remain behind as a member of the Expedition 18 crew. The crew flew to Kennedy to take part in terminal countdown demonstration test activities, which include equipment familiarization and emergency exit training and culminate in a simulated launch countdown. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-2009-1182

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.