CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Inside Orbiter Processing Facility-2 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, United Space Alliance technicians close space shuttle Atlantis’ midbody door for the final time. The orbiter is undergoing final preparations for its transfer to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor complex targeted for November. The work is part of Transition and Retirement of the remaining shuttle. Atlantis is being prepared for public display at the visitor complex. Over the course of its 26-year career, Atlantis spent 293 days in space during 33 missions. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/transition. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis KSC-2012-5614

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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The crew of mission STS-123 waves to spectators as they head for the Astrovan to take them to NASA Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A. In front, from left, are Pilot Gregory H. Johnson, Mission Specialist Garrett Reisman and Commander Dominic Gorie. Behind them, from left, are Mission Specialists Robert L. Behnken, Takao Doi, Mike Foreman and Rick Linnehan. The crew is taking part in a simulated launch countdown, the culmination of the terminal countdown demonstration test, or TCDT. The TCDT provides astronauts and ground crews with an opportunity to participate in various simulated countdown activities, including equipment familiarization and emergency training. Space shuttle Endeavour is targeted to launch March 11 at 2:28 a.m. EDT on the 16-day STS-123 mission to the International Space Station. Endeavour and its crew will deliver the first section of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory and the Canadian Space Agency's two-armed robotic system, Dextre. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-08pd0553

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a tractor-trailer carrying the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, or AMS, passes the Vehicle Assembly Building en route to the Space Station Processing Facility. The state-of-the-art particle physics detector arrived on Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility aboard an Air Force C-5M aircraft from Europe. It will operate as an external module on the International Space Station to study the universe and its origin by searching for dark matter. AMS will fly to the station aboard space shuttle Endeavour's STS-134 mission targeted to launch Feb. 26, 2011. Photo credit: NASA/Frankie Martin KSC-2010-4495

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The STS-118 payload canister transporter turns the corner toward the Canister Rotation Facility. Inside the canister are the SPACEHAB module, the S5 truss and the external stowage platform 3. At the CRF, the canister will be raised to a vertical position for delivery to Launch Pad 39A. Endeavour is targeted for launch on Aug. 9 to the International Space Station. The mission will continue space station construction with installation of the truss. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann KSC-07pd1683

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Columbus, the European Space Agency's research laboratory, is moved under escort past the Vehicle Assembly Building. It is heading to the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The module arrived on a Beluga Airbus May 30 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center from the manufacturer in Germany. In the SSPF, the module will be prepared for delivery to the International Space Station on a future space shuttle mission. Columbus will expand the research facilities of the station and provide researchers with the ability to conduct numerous experiments in the area of life, physical and materials sciences. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann KSC-06pd0963

STS-134 AMS XFER FROM SLF TO SSPF 2010-4495

HL-20 at the LaRC Hangar in the Early Morning

Dimitri Gerondidakis KSC-2012-5614

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Summary

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Inside Orbiter Processing Facility-2 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, United Space Alliance technicians close space shuttle Atlantis’ midbody door for the final time. The orbiter is undergoing final preparations for its transfer to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor complex targeted for November. The work is part of Transition and Retirement of the remaining shuttle. Atlantis is being prepared for public display at the visitor complex. Over the course of its 26-year career, Atlantis spent 293 days in space during 33 missions. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/transition. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis

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.