CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - At NASA Kennedy Space Centers Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida, the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA, is in position in the mate/demate device so that space shuttle Discovery can be lowered and attached to it. Known as the MDD, the devise is a large gantry-like steel structure used to hoist a shuttle off the ground and position it onto the back of the SCA.The SCA is a Boeing 747 jet that was originally manufactured for commercial use and modified by NASA to transport the shuttles between destinations on Earth. This SCA, designated NASA 905, is assigned to the remaining ferry missions, delivering the shuttles to their permanent public display sites. NASA 905 is scheduled to ferry Discovery to the Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia on April 17, after which the shuttle will be placed on display in the Smithsonians National Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - At NASA Kennedy Space Centers Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida, the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA, is in position in the mate/demate device so that space shuttle Discovery can be lowered and attached to it. Known as the MDD, the devise is a large gantry-like steel structure used to hoist a shuttle off the ground and position it onto the back of the SCA.The SCA is a Boeing 747 jet that was originally manufactured for commercial use and modified by NASA to transport the shuttles between destinations on Earth. This SCA, designated NASA 905, is assigned to the remaining ferry missions, delivering the shuttles to their permanent public display sites. NASA 905 is scheduled to ferry Discovery to the Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia on April 17, after which the shuttle will be placed on display in the Smithsonians National Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va.
SuperStock offers millions of photos, videos, and stock assets to creatives around the world. This image of CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - At NASA Kennedy Space Centers Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida, the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA, is in position in the mate/demate device so that space shuttle Discovery can be lowered and attached to it. Known as the MDD, the devise is a large gantry-like steel structure used to hoist a shuttle off the ground and position it onto the back of the SCA.The SCA is a Boeing 747 jet that was originally manufactured for commercial use and modified by NASA to transport the shuttles between destinations on Earth. This SCA, designated NASA 905, is assigned to the remaining ferry missions, delivering the shuttles to their permanent public display sites. NASA 905 is scheduled to ferry Discovery to the Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia on April 17, after which the shuttle will be placed on display in the Smithsonians National Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va. by Piemags/PL Photography Limited is available for licensing today.

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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - The crawler transporter slowly moves the Mobile Launcher Platform (MLP), carrying a set of twin solid rocket boosters, away from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) in support of engineering analysis vibration tests on the crawler and MLP. On either side of the boosters on the horizon can be seen the two launch pads. The crawler is moving at various speeds up to 1 mph in an effort to achieve vibration data gathering goals as it leaves the VAB and then returns. The boosters are braced at the top for stability. The primary purpose of these rollout tests is to gather data to develop future maintenance requirements on the transport equipment and the flight hardware. Various parts of the MLP and crawler transporter have been instrumented with vibration data collection equipment.
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Fuel trucks head for Launch Pad 39B to refill the external tank on Space Shuttle Discovery. The top of the external tank can be seen above the rotating service structure that encloses the space shuttle. The launch attempt of Discovery on mission STS-116 was postponed Dec. 7 due a low cloud ceiling over Kennedy Space Center. The next launch attempt was scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 9, at 8:47 p.m. This will be Discovery's 33rd mission and the first night launch since 2002. The 20th shuttle mission to the International Space Station, STS-116 carries another truss segment, P5. It will serve as a spacer, mated to the P4 truss that was attached in September. After installing the P5, the crew will reconfigure and redistribute the power generated by two pairs of U.S. solar arrays. Landing is expected Dec. 19 at KSC.
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The Soyuz rocket is rolled out to the launch pad Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz is scheduled to launch the crew of Expedition 19 and a spaceflight participant on March 26, 2009.
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The Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft is transported by railcar to its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Friday, Oct. 10, 2008. Expedition 18 Commander Michael Fincke, Flight Engineer Yuri V. Lonchakov and American spaceflight participant Richard Garriott will launch October 12 and dock with the International Space Station October 14. Fincke and Lonchakov will spend six months on the station, while Garriott will return to Earth after 10 days with the Expedition 17 crew members currently on the ISS.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The clouds take on a rosy glow as the dawn breaks over the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Preparations are under way to roll NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA, away from the mate-demate device surrounding it. Space shuttle Endeavour has been fitted with an aerodynamic tailcone and secured atop the aircraft for its upcoming ferry flight.The SCA, a modified 747 jetliner, will fly Endeavour to Los Angeles where it will be placed on public display at the California Science Center. This is the final ferry flight scheduled in the Space Shuttle Program era.
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Mobile Launcher Platform (MLP) number 3 and a set of twin solid rocket boosters, atop the crawler-transporter, inch along the crawlerway in support of the second engineering analysis vibration test on the crawler and MLP. The crawler is moving at various speeds up to 1 mph in an effort to achieve vibration data gathering goals as it leaves the VAB, travels toward Launch Pad 39A (framed between the boosters), and then returns. The boosters are braced at the top for stability. The primary purpose of these rollout tests is to gather data to develop future maintenance requirements on the transport equipment and the flight hardware. Various parts of the MLP and crawler transporter have been instrumented with vibration data collection equipment.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A truck sprays water on the gravel crawler way at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida as crawler-transporter No. 2 moves toward Launch Pad 39A. With crawler-transporter modifications complete, the test drive is designed to check out modifications to ensure its ability to carry launch vehicles such as the space agency's Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket to the launch pad.NASA's Ground Systems Development and Operations Program is leading the 20-year life-extension project for the crawler. A pair of behemoth machines called crawler-transporters has carried the load of taking rockets and spacecraft to the launch pad for more than 40 years at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Each the size of a baseball infield and powered by locomotive and large electrical power generator engines, the crawler-transporters will stand ready to keep up the work for the next generation of launch vehicles projects to lift astronauts into space.
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The crawler-transporter moves away from Launch Pad 39B after depositing its cargo, Space Shuttle Discovery and the mobile launcher platform. The shuttle's external tank is capped by the oxygen vent hood. Farther to the left above the fixed service structure is the 80-foot tall lightning mast. The rollout from the Vehicle Assembly Building began at 12:29 a.m. The shuttle was harddown on the pad at 9:03 a.m. The mission is No. 20 to the International Space Station and construction flight 12A.1. The mission payload is the SPACEHAB module, the P5 integrated truss structure and other key components. The launch window for mission STS-116 opens Dec. 7.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space shuttle Discovery rolls toward the open doors of the Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. It rests on the orbiter transporter system, which has 76 wheels and measures 106.5 feet long. Inside the VAB, Discovery will be attached to its external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters in high bay 3 in preparation for its upcoming STS-124 mission to the International Space Station. On the mission, the STS-124 crew will transport the Japanese Experiment Module - Pressurized Module and the Japanese Remote Manipulator System to the space station. Launch of Discovery is targeted for May 31.
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The 212-foot-long Space Launch System (SLS) rocket core stage pathfinder has been offloaded from NASAs Pegasus Barge at Kennedy Space Centers Launch Complex 39 turn basin wharf on Oct. 1, 2019. It is slowly being backed up so that it is in the correct configuration for the move forward to the Vehicle Assembly Building. The Pegasus Barge made its first delivery to Kennedy in support of the agency's Artemis missions. The upgraded 310-foot-long barge arrived Sept. 27, 2019, ferrying the SLS core stage pathfinder, a full-scale mock-up of the rocket's core stage. It will be used by Exploration Ground Systems and its contractor, Jacobs, to practice offloading, moving and stacking maneuvers, using important ground support equipment to train employees and certify all the equipment works properly. The pathfinder will stay at Kennedy for approximately one month before trekking back to NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana.
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - - The aft skirt and lower segment of the Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) being prepared for Return to Flight on mission STS-114 are being transported from the Rotation Processing and Surge Facility to the Vehicle Assembly Building. Other segments will be moved to the VAB later for stacking. Two SRBs support the liftoff of the Space Shuttle on a launch. The twin 149-foot tall, 12-foot diameter SRBs provide the main propulsion system during launch to place the 180,000-pound orbiters in the proper orbit around the Earth. They operate parallel with the Space Shuttle main engines for the first two minutes of flight and jettison away from the orbiter with help from the Booster Separation Motors, about 26.3 nautical miles above the Earths surface.
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A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket is seen as it rolls out to Pad-0A, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2019, at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Northrop Grummans 12th contracted cargo resupply mission with NASA to the International Space Station will deliver about 8,200 pounds of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory and its crew. Launch is scheduled for 9:59 a.m. EDT Saturday, Nov. 2.
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The Soyuz rocket is seen as it is rolled out of Building 112, Thursday, July 18, 2019 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Expedition 60 Soyuz Commander Alexander Skvortsov of Roscosmos, flight engineer Andrew Morgan of NASA, and flight engineer Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency) are scheduled to launch aboard their Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft at 12:28 p.m. Eastern time (9:28 p.m. Baikonur time) , on Saturday, July 20.
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The Soyuz rocket is raised into a vertical position on the launch pad, Monday, June 4, 2018 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Expedition 56 Soyuz Commander Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos, flight engineer Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA, and flight engineer Alexander Gerst of ESA (European Space Agency) are scheduled to launch aboard their Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft at 7:12 a.m. Eastern time (5:12 p.m. Baikonur time), on Wednesday, June 6.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - After space shuttle Endeavour's rollout to Launch pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida this morning, two different shuttles are poised on two different launch pads. Shuttle Atlantis (foreground) already was on Launch Pad 39A. With the space shuttle fleet set for retirement in 2010, this is expected to be the final time two shuttles will be on launch pads at the same time. Endeavour will stand by at pad B in the unlikely event that a rescue mission is necessary during Atlantis' upcoming mission to upgrade NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Atlantis is targeted to launch May 12. After Endeavour is cleared from its duty as a rescue spacecraft, it will be moved to Launch Pad 39A for its STS-127 mission to the International Space Station. That flight is targeted for launch June 13.
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Exterior view of Launch Complex 39A
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