At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA's payload transportation canisters rest end-to-end outside the Reutilization, Recycling and Marketing Facility on Ransom Road, their mission accomplished. The two payload canisters are being decommissioned following the end of the Space Shuttle Program. The canisters delivered to the launch pad all space shuttle and space station cargo that required vertical installation into the shuttles' payload bays. Each canister weighs 110,000 pounds and is 65 feet long, 22 feet wide, and 18 feet, 7 inches high. The canisters were prescreened through NASA Headquarters as possible artifacts, but their size makes them difficult to transport to locations off the center. Federal and state agencies now will be given the opportunity to screen the canisters for potential use before a final decision is made on their disposition. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/pdf/167403main_CRF-06.pdf. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann KSC-2011-7230

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Straight on long shot from a low angle looking up as a contingent of civic leaders from Abilene, Texas walk on a catwalk near the left wingtip of a US Air Force C-5 Galaxy. They are taking a tour of Dover Air Force Base, Delaware after presenting base officials with the Abilene Community Award on July 27th, 2000

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – In Hangar N at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, an 11-axis robotic X-ray system takes images of hardware for evaluation. The activity is part of work performed by PaR Systems, Inc. under a partnership agreement with NASA. NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida recently established a partnership agreement with PaR Systems, Inc. of Shoreview, Minn., for operation of the Hangar N facility and its nondestructive testing and evaluation equipment. As the spaceport transitions from a historically government-only launch facility to a multi-user spaceport for both federal and commercial customers, partnerships between the space agency and other organizations will be a key element in that effort. Hangar N is located at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station adjacent to Kennedy and houses a unique inventory of test and evaluation equipment and the capability for current and future mission spaceflight support. Photo credit: NASA/ Dimitri Gerondidakis KSC-2013-3218

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – In Orbiter Processing Facility bay 3 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the remote manipulator system, or RMS, arm is lifted away from space shuttle Discovery's payload bay. The RMS is used to grab, or grapple, the payload as well as retrieve, repair and deploy satellites; provide a mobile extension ladder for spacewalking crewmembers; and be used as an inspection aid to allow flight crew members to view the orbiter’s or payload’s surfaces through a TV camera on the arm. Discovery is targeted to launch Aug. 6 on the STS-128 mission. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller KSC-2009-2966

Expedition 47 Qualification Exams (NHQ201602240039)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a large crane is used to lift a new engine and generator high overhead for installation on crawler-transporter 2 CT-2). The Apollo era diesel engines were removed last month. Work continues in high bay 2 to upgrade CT-2 so that it can carry NASA’s Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket, which is under design, and new Orion spacecraft to the launch pad. The crawler-transporters were used to carry the mobile launcher platform and space shuttle to Launch Complex 39 for space shuttle launches for 30 years. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann KSC-2012-1675

Expedition 19 Soyuz Assembly. NASA public domain image colelction.

Jim Grossmann KSC-2011-7230

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Summary

At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA's payload transportation canisters rest end-to-end outside the Reutilization, Recycling and Marketing Facility on Ransom Road, their mission accomplished. The two payload canisters are being decommissioned following the end of the Space Shuttle Program. The canisters delivered to the launch pad all space shuttle and space station cargo that required vertical installation into the shuttles' payload bays. Each canister weighs 110,000 pounds and is 65 feet long, 22 feet wide, and 18 feet, 7 inches high. The canisters were prescreened through NASA Headquarters as possible artifacts, but their size makes them difficult to transport to locations off the center. Federal and state agencies now will be given the opportunity to screen the canisters for potential use before a final decision is made on their disposition. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/pdf/167403main_CRF-06.pdf. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

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.