The final takeoff of the final shuttle trip to the space station by the Atlantis shuttle craft from Cape Canaveral in Florida
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Contributor:
Brenda Kean / Alamy Stock PhotoImage ID:
BMJ5JEFile size:
48.1 MB (726.5 KB Compressed download)Releases:
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5029 x 3341 px | 42.6 x 28.3 cm | 16.8 x 11.1 inches | 300dpiDate taken:
14 May 2010Location:
Atlantis shuttle takeoff from Cape Canaveral, Kennedy Space Centre FloridaMore information:
The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is the U.S. government installation operates America's astronaut launch facilities. Serving as the base for the country's three space shuttles, the NASA field centre also conducts unmanned civilian launches from adjacent Cape Canaveral Air Force. KSC has been the launch site for every U.S. human space flight since 1968. Its iconic Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) is the fourth-largest structure in the world by volume. Located on Merritt Island, Florida, the centre is north-northwest of Cape Canaveral on the Atlantic Ocean, midway between Miami and Jacksonville on Florida's Space Coast. All launch operations are conducted at Launch Complex 39 (LC-39), where the shuttle's major components (orbiter, external fuel tank and booster rockets) arrive, are stacked (mated) and checked out inside the VAB; then moved to Pad 39A for launch.. Both pads are on the ocean, 3 miles (5 km) east of the VAB. The Shuttle Landing Facility, among the longest runways in the world, is just to the north. From 1969–1972, LC-39 was the departure point for all six Apollo manned moon landing missions using the Saturn V, the largest and most powerful operational launch vehicle in history.KSC became the launch site for the Space Shuttle program beginning in 1981. The initial launch, Columbia on April 12, 1981, was the first of a vehicle with astronauts aboard which had no prior unmanned launch. KSC's 2.9 mile (4.6 km) Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) is the orbiters' primary end-of-mission landing site, Shuttle missions during nearly 30 years of operations have included deploying satellites and interplanetary probes, conducting space science and technology experiments, visits to the Russian MIR space station, construction and servicing of the International Space Station, deployment and servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope and serving as a space laboratory. The shuttle is scheduled to be retired from service in 2010 after 134 launches.