NASA Space Shuttle Operations

Images depicting NASA's space shuttle processing, showcasing large aircraft and preparations for launches, emphasizing space exploration's technical aspects.

STS-131 DISCOVERY ROLLOVER FROM OPF-3 TO VAB

SAN DIEGO, Calif. - A forklift is used to carry ground support equipment into the well deck of the USS Anchorage at Naval Base San Diego in California. The equipment will be used during recovery of the Orion crew module after its first flight test. Before launch of Orion on a Delta IV Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, NASA, Lockheed Martin and U.S. Navy personnel will head out to sea in the USS Anchorage and the USNS Salvor, a salvage ship, and wait for splashdown of the Orion crew module in the Pacific Ocean.The Ground Systems Development and Operations Program will lead the recovery efforts. Orion is the exploration spacecraft designed to carry astronauts to destinations not yet explored by humans, including an asteroid and Mars. It will have emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities. The first unpiloted flight test of Orion is scheduled to launch in December atop a Unite

STS-132 ET-136 ARRIVAL TO LC39 TURNBASIN

Vehicle deck of a BC Ferry, Canada. (Editorial Use Only)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - At the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a worker inspects space shuttle Discovery as it is attached to the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft in the mate-demate device.The device, known as the MDD, is a large gantry-like steel structure used to hoist a shuttle off the ground and position it onto the back of the aircraft, or SCA. The SCA is a Boeing 747 jet, originally manufactured for commercial use, which was modified by NASA to transport the shuttles between destinations on Earth. The 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 Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

Triebwerk eines Schmalrumpfflugzeugs im Rückwärtsgang, Nahaufnahme, Seitenansicht. Rückwärtsschub des Flugzeugtriebwerks Narrow-body airplane engine in reverse closeup, side view. Backward thrust of the aircraft engine. Braking after landing Copyright: xZoonar.com/DmitriixMarchenkox 22744808

USA, Alabama, Huntsville, United States Space and Rocket Center

Samaritan Purse landed its DC-8 at NASAs Armstrong Flight Research Center Building 703 in Palmdale, California, to deliver supplies needed to meet the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic. NASA Armstrong personnel assisted in unloading the aircraft

Issued submarine at the port of Puerto de Mogan, southwest Gran Canaria, Spain

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA, rolls onto the ramp area at NASA Kennedy Space Centers Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida. The SCA touched down at 5:05 p.m. EDT to prepare for shuttle Endeavours ferry flight to the Los Angeles International Airport on Sept. 17. The Mate/Demate Device, or MDD, is located at the ramp area and will be used to hoist and lower Endeavour onto the back of the SCA.

The space shuttle Enterprise is lifted off of a barge and onto the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum where it will be on permanent displayed, Wednesday, June 6, 2012 in New York.

(TRACT) Transport Rotorcraft Aircraft Testbed: Helicopter airframe drop test at NASA Langley's Landing and Impact Research Facility (LandIR)

MIG-21 SMT aircraft, a relatively rare version in Germany, left behind in 1993 by the Soviet air forces during their withdrawal, in a hangar at the Altenburg Nobitz Airfield, Nobitz, Altenburg, Thuringia, Germany, Europe

The Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft is seen while being encapsulated in its fairing on Thursday, Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2016 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Expedition 49 flight engineer Shane Kimbrough of NASA, flight engineer Andrey Borisenko of Roscosmos, and Soyuz commander Sergey Ryzhikov of Roscosmos are scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Oct. 19.

DF-ST-86-09946. Base: Paris Country: France (FRA)

At the KSC a href='.._.._subjects_slf.htm' Shuttle Landing Facility _a , the Italian Space Agencys a href='.._.._subjects_mplm.htm' Multi-Purpose Logistics Module _a Donatello rolls out of the Airbus Beluga air cargo plane that brought it from the factory of Alenia Aerospazio in Turin, Italy. The third of three for the International Space Station, the module will be transported to the a href='.._.._subjects_sspf.htm' Space Station Processing Facility _a for processing. Among the activities for the payload test team are integrated electrical tests with other Station elements in the SSPF, leak tests, electrical and software compatibility tests with the Space Shuttle (using the Cargo Integrated Test equipment) and an Interface Verification Test once the module is installed in the Space Shuttles payload bay at the launch pad. The most significant mechanical task to be performed on Donatello in the SSPF is the installation and outfitting of the racks for carrying the various experiments and

Stuttgart 21 - Tage der offenen Baustelle 2025 - Kelchstützen Die Kelchstützen des neuen Hauptbahnhof Stuttgart 21 LicenseRF Copyright: xZoonar.com/MatthiasxNguyenx 23313773

HL-10 in Wind Tunnel

Bridge at an airport, Punta Arenas Airport, Puerto Natales, Patagonia, Chile

Germany, Rhineland-Pfalz, Museum Speyer, last surviving example of the Soviet space shuttle, Buran

The second X-43A hypersonic research vehicle, mounted under the right wing of the B-52B launch aircraft, viewed from the B-52 cockpit. The crew is working on closing out the research vehicle, preparing it for flight.

PROTOTIPO DE AVIOCAR S 212. Location: CONSTRUCCIONES AERONAUTICAS-CASA. GETAFE. MADRID. SPANIEN.

The Mariner barge is docked at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, with the first integrated piece of flight hardware for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) inside, at right. The ICPS was shipped from the United Launch Alliance (ULA) facility in Decatur, Alabama. The ICPS will be offloaded and transported to the ULA Horizontal Integration Facility where it will be removed from its flight case. The ICPS is the in-space stage that is located toward the top of the rocket, between the Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter and the Orion Spacecraft Adapter. It will provide some of the in-space propulsion during Orion's first flight test atop the SLS on Exploration Mission 1.

Close up of a modern airplane engine Close-up, detail of aircraft, jet engine of a commercial aircraft. Copyright: xZoonar.com/JFsPic xThielemannx 10790346

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Space shuttle Atlantis, atop a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA, is towed toward the mate/demate device on the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The SCA is a modified Boeing 747 jetliner. Once underneath the device, a hoist will lift Atlantis from the back of the SCA and place it on the ground. Atlantis returned from California atop the SCA after its May 24 landing at Edwards Air Force Base, concluding mission STS-125. The ferry flight from Edwards Air Force Base began June 1. Atlantis' next assignment is the STS-129 mission, targeted to launch in November 2009.

Motor racing simulator

Glider at Dusk, FAI World Sailplane Grand Prix, Vitacura Airfield, Santiago, Chile, South America

USA, Louisiana, New Orleans, National World War II Museum, Louisiana Memorial Pavilion, Military Douglas C-47 Transport

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - At Hangar AF on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the spent first stage of NASA's Ares I-X rocket is secured in a slip. The solid rocket booster recovery ship Freedom Star recovered the booster after it splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean following its flight test.Liftoff of the 6-minute flight test was at 11:30 a.m. EDT Oct. 28. This was the first launch from Kennedy's pads of a vehicle other than the space shuttle since the Apollo Program's Saturn rockets were retired. The parts used to make the Ares I-X booster flew on 30 different shuttle missions ranging from STS-29 in 1989 to STS-106 in 2000. The data returned from more than 700 sensors throughout the rocket will be used to refine the design of future launch vehicles and bring NASA one step closer to reaching its exploration goals.

At Cape Canaveral Air Station, workers secure an Atlas IIA rocket on a transporter after offloading it from a U.S. Air Force C-5c (left). The rocket is scheduled to launch the NASA GOES-L satellite from Launch Pad 36A on May 15. Once in orbit, the satellite will become GOES-11, joining GOES-8, GOES-9 and GOES-10 in space. The fourth of a new advanced series of geostationary weather satellites for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), GOES-L is a three-axis inertially stabilized spacecraft that will provide pictures and perform atmospheric sounding at the same time. Once launched, the satellite will undergo checkout and then provide backup capabilities for the existing, aging operational satellites

Heathrow Terminal Two - The Queen's Terminal with Richard Wilson's Slipstream, London, United Kingdom. Architect: Luis Vidal + Architects , 2014. Concourse with Richard Wilson's Slipstream sculpture.

Mobile steps on an airport runway

A port bow view of the guided missile frigate USS REID (FFG-30) on the ways during christening and launching ceremonies at the Todd Pacific Shipyards Corp., Los Angeles Div. Base: San Pedro State: California (CA) Country: United States Of America (USA)

Teams peform Orion Parachute Test Vehicle (PTV) loading operations on July 22, 2013 in preparation for the July 24 parachute drop test at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. Part of Batch image transfer from Flickr.

Heathrow Terminal Two - The Queen's Terminal with Richard Wilson's Slipstream, London, United Kingdom. Architect: Luis Vidal + Architects , 2014. Concourse with Richard Wilson's Slipstream sculpture.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - In the Vehicle Assembly Building's transfer aisle at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, external tank No. 119 is lifted off its transporter. The tank will be raised to vertical and 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.

Germany, Bavaria, Munich, Deutsches Museum, Exhibit of WWII U-boat

A close-up view of the artwork on the nose of an EF-111A Raven aircraft on display at the 1991 Department of Defense Joint Services Open House. Base: Andrews Air Force Base State: Maryland (MD) Country: United States Of America (USA)

Aircraft engine, Vienna airport, VIE, Austria, Europe

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - At the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, workers roll NASA's GOES-P meteorological satellite from the cargo bay of a U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft.GOES-P, the latest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, was developed by NASA for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. GOES-P is designed to watch for storm development and observed current weather conditions on Earth. Launch of GOES-P is targeted for no earlier than Feb. 25, 2010, from Launch Complex 37 aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket.

Heathrow Terminal Two - The Queen's Terminal with Richard Wilson's Slipstream, London, United Kingdom. Architect: Luis Vidal + Architects , 2014. Concourse with Richard Wilson's Slipstream sculpture.

HSCT (High Speed Civil Transport) Ref-H Model test-594 in 40x80ft w.t. with Jim Ross & Boeing Engineer

SERBIA, Belgrade. Yugoslav Aeronautical Museum at Belgrade Airport- Schoolchildren (NR) visiting display of WW2 era aircraft from Yugoslav Airforce

USA, Connecticut, Windsor Locks, New England Air Museum, Sikorsky Aircraft is a major Connecticut-based company, Sikorsky VS-44A Flying Boat, WW2-era

Tourists traveling in hot air balloon

Germany, Rhineland-Pfalz, Museum Speyer, airliner display including elevated Boeing 747

KINGS BAY, Ga. (Feb. 1, 2021) The Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarine USS Tennessee (SSBN 734) enters the Trident Refit Facility, Kings Bay, Georgia, dry dock for an extended refit period (ERP). Tennessee will be the last submarine in the dry dock before a $554 million dry dock refurbishment project begins later this summer.

Bowanome of the Hr.Ms. Callenburgh

Rear view of man standing on ramp at airport

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The Space Shuttle Program's last external fuel tank, ET-122, has been moved inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The tank traveled 900 miles by sea from NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to Kennedy's Turn Basin aboard the Pegasus Barge. The tank eventually will be attached to space shuttle Endeavour for the STS-134 mission to the International Space Station. STS-134, targeted to launch in Feb. 2011, currently is scheduled to be the last mission in the shuttle program. The tank, which is the largest element of the space shuttle stack, was damaged during Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 and restored to flight configuration by Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company employees.

A view of two tow tractors secured to the flight deck alongside the island of the Italian aircraft carrier ITS GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI (C-551). The ship is at Baltimore for a port visit and will be holding public tours on the 4th and 5th of November. Base: Baltimore State: Maryland (MD) Country: United States Of America (USA)

An aircraft undergoing repairs at North Weald Airfield, Essex, England, United Kingdom, Europe

Fiber sail rolled detail macro texture on sailing marina

NASAs X-57 Maxwell, the agencys first all-electric X-plane and first crewed X-planed in two decades, is delivered to NASAs Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California in its Mod II configuration. The first of three primary modifications for the project, Mod II involves testing of the aircrafts cruise electric propulsion system. Delivery to NASA from prime contractor Empirical Systems Aerospace of San Luis Obispo, California, marks a major milestone for the project, at which point the vehicle is reintegrated for ground tests, to be followed by taxi tests, and eventually, flight tests. X-57s goal is to further advance the design and airworthiness process for distributed electric propulsion technology for general aviation aircraft, which can provide multiple benefits to efficiency, emissions, and noise.

The Soyuz rocket is seen as it approaches the Soyuz launch pad on Monday, Dec. 21, 2011 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The launch of the Soyuz spacecraft will carry Expedition 30 Soyuz Commander Soyuz Commander Oleg Kononenko of Russia, NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut and Flight Engineer Andre Kuipers to the International Space Station.

Vintage Argosy cargo aircraft, Woodbourne, Blenheim, Marlborough, South Island, New Zealand.

Germany, Rhineland-Pfalz, Museum Speyer, Swedish Saab Drakken jet fighter

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - At the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip, a second stage Centaur (Block I) is rolled out of a Russian Antonov AH-124-100 cargo airplane. The Centaur will be mated with the Lockheed Martin Atlas V, designated AV-007, that is the launch vehicle for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The MRO is designed for a series of global mapping, regional survey and targeted observations from a near-polar, low-altitude Mars orbit. These observations will be unprecedented in terms of the spatial resolution and coverage achieved by the orbiters instruments as they observe the atmosphere and surface of Mars while probing its shallow subsurface as part of a follow the water strategy. The orbiter is undergoing environmental tests in facilities at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, Colo., and is on schedule for a launch window that begins Aug. 10. Launch will be from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - At the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, preparations are under way to offload the ExPRESS Logistics Carrier 3, or ELC-3, from a U.S. Air Force C-5 aircraft.ELC-3 and the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer are the primary payloads for space shuttle Endeavour's STS-134 mission to the International Space Station. The STS-134 crew will also deliver spare parts including two S-band communications antennas, a high pressure gas tank, additional spare parts for Dextre and micrometeoroid debris shields. Endeavour's launch is targeted for July 29, 2010.

McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II outside hangar at former RAF Bentwaters base, Suffolk, England, UK.

Landing gear and under carriage of vintage world war two aircraft on display in public park in South Korea

Alitalia, Malpensa airport, Milan, Italy

Northwest Airlines Boeing 747 200 freighter at LAX airport. Freight being off loaded from the cargo section of the aircraft.

U.S. Airmen assigned to the 9th Airlift Squadron and Lockheed Martin crew members offload National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite support cargo from a U.S. Air Force C-5M Super Galaxy at NASA Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida, Jan. 23, 2024. The 9th AS aircrew transported NOAAs newest weather satellite, GOES-U, to Kennedy Space Center from Buckley Space Force Base, Colorado, using its oversized carrying capacity as the largest mobility aircraft in the Air Forces inventory.

Detail of a Junkers aircraft made of aluminium with Junkers lettering, Friedrichshafen, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, Europe

Sweden, Linkoping, Flygvapen Museum, Swedish Air Force Museum, German Maybach MB IV A inline aviation engine

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, space shuttles Discovery, at right, and Endeavour are parked "nose-to-nose" outside Orbiter Processing Facility-3 (OPF-3) during a unique photo opportunity. Discovery, which temporarily was being stored in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), is switching places with Endeavour, which has been undergoing decommissioning in OPF-1. Discovery then will be rolled into OPF-1 and Endeavour into the VAB.In OPF-1, Discovery will undergo further preparations for public display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia. Endeavour will be stored in the VAB until October when it will be moved into OPF-2 for further work to get it ready for public display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. At the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip, workers begin to offload the first stage of an Atlas V rocket from a Russian air cargo plane. The Atlas V is the launch vehicle for the New Horizons spacecraft. New Horizons is designed to help us understand worlds at the edge of our solar system by making the first reconnaissance of Pluto and Charon - a 'double planet' and the last planet in our solar system to be visited by spacecraft. The mission will then visit one or more objects in the Kuiper Belt region beyond Neptune. New Horizons is scheduled to launch from Launch Complex 41 at CCAFS in January 2006, swing past Jupiter for a gravity boost and scientific studies in February or March 2007, and reach Pluto and its moon, Charon, in July 2015.

DN-SD-03-09280. Base: Lingshui Air Field State: Hainan Country: China (CHN) Scene Major Command Shown: USPACOM

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The space shuttle Discovery heads out of the VAB to Launch Pad 39B. Discovery is set to leftoff on shuttle mission STS-41, carrying a five-member crew and the Ulysses solar explorer during a launch period extending from Oct. 5 through Oct. 23, 1990.

Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow aviation museum Calgary Alberta

Airbus A 350 900 XWB, detail of engine and fuselage, Munich "Franz Josef Strauss", Munich, Upper Bavaria, Bavaria, Germany airport

DF-ST-89-06869. Country: Unknown

STS-131 ET-135 Offload from Barge & Xfer to VAB

New Zealand, South Island, Otago, Wanaka, Warbirds and Wheels Museum, DeHavilland Vampire and Douglas Skyhawk jets

The X-59, NASAs quiet supersonic technology experimental aircraft, sits in Lockheed Martins Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, following its return from several months of critical ground testing in Ft. Worth, Texas

DF-ST-87-11697. Subject Operation/Series: WILLIAM TELL '86 Base: Tyndall Air Force Base State: Florida (FL) Country: United States Of America (USA)

USA, New Jersey, Rio Grande. Naval Air Station Wildwood Aviation Museum, US Navy jet fighters in the hangar (Editorial Use Only)

Old Swissair plane, Swiss Museum of Transport, Museum, Lucerne, Lake Lucerne, Canton of Lucerne, Switzerland

Beluga, Airbus, A300-600, aeroplane, transport aircraft, large aircraft fuselage without wings behind a fence in an industrial storage area, Hamburg, Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Germany, Europe

A close-up view of an aircraft which was destroyed during Hurricane Hugo, which devastated the area on September 19th. Base: Saint Croix State: Virgin Islands (VI) Country: United States Of America (USA)

(TRACT) Transport Rotorcraft Aircraft Testbed: Helicopter airframe drop test at NASA Langley's Landing and Impact Research Facility (LandIR)

AIRBUS INDUSTRIE, AIRBUS A350-900, Wing with Sharklets, Winglets, ILA Berlin Air Show, Berlin International Aerospace Exhibition, Schoenefeld, Brandenburg, Brandenburg, Germany, Europe

Isaac Perel submarine, Cartagena, Murcia region, Spain, Europe

Detail view of a radial engine

Airplane in Destroyed Building at Technology Center.. Photographs Relating to Disasters and Emergency Management Programs, Activities, and Officials

S86-30504 (16 April 1986) --- A 4,000 pound, 11' x 20' piece of the aft center segment tang joint of the space shuttle Challenger's right-hand solid rocket booster is off loaded from the Stena Workhorse after its recovery on April 13, 1986. The burned out area is 15 x 28 .

SupraTransII driving test facility

Mission engineers bring in the final cargo to load it into the Cygnus resupply spacecraft onboard the Northrop Grumman Antares rocket, Saturday, Feb. 8, 2020 at launch Pad-0A of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Northrop Grummans 13th contracted cargo resupply mission with NASA to the International Space Station will deliver more than 7,500 pounds of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory and its crew.

Detail of the integrated tail screw in the fin on the helicopter, Friedrichshafen, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, Europe

Antigua and Barbuda, West Indies, Island of Antigua. St. John's. Valiant Lady. Virgin Voyages

Gondola, Tyrolean Mt Zugspitze cable car, Mt Zugspitze, Bavaria-Tyrol, Germany, Europe

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