CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – In the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a crane is enlisted to lift the external fuel tank for space shuttle Discovery's STS-131 mission, ET-135, into a test cell. The tank was delivered to Kennedy aboard the Pegasus barge from NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility on Dec. 26. The tank will remain in the test cell until it is transferred into a high bay for mating with the twin solid rocket boosters that will be used on the mission. Launch of the STS-131 mission to the International Space Station is targeted for March 18. For information on the STS-131 mission and crew, visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts131/index.html. Photo credit: NASA/Glenn Benson KSC-2010-1066

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- In the Vertical Integration Facility on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, NASA's Juno spacecraft, enclosed in its payload fairing, sits atop the United Launch Alliance Atlas V-551 launch vehicle, awaiting its move to Space Launch Complex 41. Liftoff is planned during a launch window which extends from 11:34 a.m. to 12:43 p.m. EDT on Aug. 5. The solar-powered spacecraft will orbit Jupiter's poles 33 times to find out more about the gas giant's origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere and investigate the existence of a solid planetary core. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. The Juno mission is part of the New Frontiers Program managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft. Launch management for the mission is the responsibility of NASA's Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. For more information, visit www.nasa.gov/juno. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-2011-6175

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - The second stage of a Delta II rocket is raised to a vertical position for its lift up the launch tower on Pad 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It will be mated to the Delta first stage already at the pad in preparation for the launch of the Mars Exploration Rover-1 (MER-B) on June 25. NASA’s twin Mars Exploration Rovers are designed to study the history of water on Mars. These robotic geologists are equipped with a robotic arm, a drilling tool, three spectrometers, and four pairs of cameras that allow them to have a human-like, 3D view of the terrain. Each rover could travel as far as 100 meters in one day to act as Mars scientists' eyes and hands, exploring an environment where humans are not yet able to go. The launch of MER-2 (MER-A) is tentatively set for June 8.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - In the Vehicle Assembly Building's transfer aisle at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, external tank No. 119 is suspended in a vertical position. The tank will lifted into high bay 3 for stacking with solid rocket boosters. The tank and boosters will launch Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-121 in July. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller KSC-06pd0720

Expedition 55 Soyuz Blessing (NHQ201803200001)

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - The first stage of the Delta II rocket to launch the MER-A (Mars Exploration Rover) vehicle arrives at Pad 17-A on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The MER Mission consists of two identical rovers designed to cover roughly 110 yards each Martian day over various terrain. Each rover will carry five scientific instruments that will allow it to search for evidence of liquid water that may have been present in the planet's past. Identical to each other, the rovers will land at different regions of Mars. Launch date for this first of NASA's two Mars Exploration Rover missions is scheduled no earlier than June 6. KSC-03pd1209

Glenn Benson KSC-2010-1066

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Summary

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – In the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a crane is enlisted to lift the external fuel tank for space shuttle Discovery's STS-131 mission, ET-135, into a test cell. The tank was delivered to Kennedy aboard the Pegasus barge from NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility on Dec. 26. The tank will remain in the test cell until it is transferred into a high bay for mating with the twin solid rocket boosters that will be used on the mission. Launch of the STS-131 mission to the International Space Station is targeted for March 18. For information on the STS-131 mission and crew, visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts131/index.html. Photo credit: NASA/Glenn Benson

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.