Space Transport Operations

Images depict space mission preparations, including transporting payload canisters, inter-tank umbilicals, and spacecraft components at the Kennedy Space Center.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The STS-118 payload canister transporter backs away from the Space Station Processing Facility with a full load. Inside the canister are the SPACEHAB module, the S5 truss and the external stowage platform 3. The canister is being moved to the Canister Rotation Facility where it 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.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The STS-118 payload canister transporter backs away from the Space Station Processing Facility with a full load. Inside the canister are the SPACEHAB module, the S5 truss and the external stowage platform 3. The canister is being moved to the Canister Rotation Facility where it 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.

The Core State Inter-tank Umbilical (CSITU) for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) arrives at the Launch Equipment Test Facility at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The CSITU will be attached to the "C" tower of the Vehicle Motion Simulator 2 test fixture. The umbilical will undergo a series of tests to confirm it is functioning properly and ready to support the SLS rocket for launch. The CSITU is a swing arm umbilical that will connect to the SLS core stage inter-tank. The umbilical's main function is to vent gaseous hydrogen from the core stage. The arm also provides conditioned air, pressurized gases, and power and data connection to the core stage. The centers Engineering Directorate and the Ground Systems Development and Operations Program are overseeing processing and testing of the umbilicals.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - On the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the second component of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory is lifted onto a flatbed trailer beside another component for transportation to the Space Station Processing Facility. The components are the Kibo Exposed Facility, or EF, and the Experiment Logistics Module Exposed Section, or ELM-ES. The EF provides a multipurpose platform where science experiments can be deployed and operated in the exposed environment. The payloads attached to the EF can be exchanged or retrieved by Kibo's robotic arm, the JEM Remote Manipulator System. The ELM-ES will be attached to the end of the EF to provide payload storage space and can carry up to three payloads at launch. In addition, the ELM-ES provides a logistics function where it can be detached from the EF and returned to the ground aboard the space shuttle. The two JEM components will be carried aboard space shuttle Endeav

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Employees at NASA Kennedy Space Center are transferring equipment stored in the RLV Hangar back to the Thermal Protection System (TPS) facility. The upper floor of the facility, where soft material was processed, was damaged during the 2004 hurricanes. While the TPS facility was being repaired, normal work activity was done in the hangar.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - One of five trucks transporting the Ares IX upper stage segments ballast assemblies arrives at the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASAs Kennedy Space, part of the preparations for the test of the Ares IX rocket. These ballast assemblies will be installed in the upper stage 1 and 7 segments and will mimic the mass of the fuel. Their total weight is approximately 160,000 pounds. The test launch of the Ares IX in 2009 will be the first designed to determine the flight-worthiness of the Ares I rocket. Ares I is an in-line, two-stage rocket that will transport the Orion crew exploration vehicle to low-Earth orbit. The Ares I first stage will be a five-segment solid rocket booster based on the four-segment design used for the space shuttle. Ares Is fifth booster segment allows the launch vehicle to lift more weight and reach a higher altitude before the first stage separates from the upper stage, which ignites in midflight to propel the Orion spacecraft to Earth or

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- A solid rocket motor is rolled into the Solid Rocket Motor Processing Facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The motor will be attached to the United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket slated to launch NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, or OCO-2, spacecraft in July 2014.OCO-2 will collect precise global measurements of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere. Scientists will analyze this data to improve our understanding of the natural processes and human activities that regulate the abundance and distribution of this important atmospheric gas.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - At the Canister Rotation Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, workers steam clean the shipping containers holding the first major flight hardware for space shuttle Atlantis' STS-125 mission to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The containers will next be moved to the airlock in the Payload Hazardous Servicing facility where the hardware will be prepared for its targeted October launch. The payload carriers will be prepared for the integration of telescope science instruments, both internal and external replacement components, as well as the flight support equipment to be used by the astronauts during the servicing mission. The three payload carriers or pallets are the Flight Support System, the Super Lightweight Interchangeable Carrier and the Orbital Replacement Unit Carrier. At the end of July, a fourth and final carrier, the Multi-Use Lightweight Equipment carrier will join the others in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility where the Hubble payload i

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - The fairing for NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 mission, or OCO-2, comes into view as its shipping container is removed in the NASA Building 836 high bay at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The fairing will protect OCO-2 during launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket from Space Launch Complex 2 in July. OCO-2 will collect precise global measurements of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere and provide scientists with a better idea of the chemical compound's impacts on climate change. Scientists will analyze this data to improve our understanding of the natural processes and human activities that regulate the abundance and distribution of this important atmospheric gas.

The Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) left-hand forward skirt for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) solid rocket boosters arrives at the entrance to the high bay at the Booster Fabrication Facility (BFF) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In the BFF, the forward skirt will be inspected and prepared for use on the left-hand solid rocket booster for EM-1. NASA's Orion spacecraft will fly atop the SLS rocket on its first uncrewed flight test.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - In Port Canaveral, Fla., a crane lifts the X-band radar from its transporter to move it onto the U.S. Army landing craft utility ship Brandy Station. The radar will provide critical support during launch of space shuttle Atlantis on the STS-125 mission. The radar will work with smaller X-band radars placed on the solid rocket booster retrieval ship Liberty Star to provide extremely high-resolution images of any debris that might be created during Atlantis' launch.

A770550 PNE LOADING EQUIPMENT C-130 J.R. DICKINSON (Project Engineer) FEB 3 77 EG&G/NTS PHOTO LAB Publication Date: 2/3/1977 AIRCRAFT; AIRPLANES (INCLUDING COPTERS); BOXES; C-130; C-130 HERCULES CARGO TRANSPORT; CARGO PLANES; DICKINSON, J.R.; EDGERTON, GERMESHAUSEN & GRIER; EG&G; EQUIPMENT (SNL); LOADING; NEVADA; NEVADA TEST SITE; NTS; NUCLEAR ENERGY TECHNOLOGY; NUCLEAR TESTING; PEACEFUL NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS; PLANES (INCLUDES HELICOPTERS); PNE; PNE LOADING EQUIPMENT C-130; SECURED; STRAPS; TAIL ASSEMBLY (AIRPLANE); TEST SITES; TRANSPORTS (MILITARY PLANES); UGT; UNDERGROUND TESTING; PNE-LOADING EQUIPMENT C-130 historical images. 1972 - 2012. Department of Energy. National Nuclear Security Administration. Photographs Related to Nuclear Weapons Testing at the Nevada Test Site.

RBSP Centaur Stage is Unloaded at Port & Moved to ASOC

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - In the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASAs Kennedy Space Center, workers are inspecting Solid Rocket Booster segments that will be used to launch Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-121 in July. STS-121 is a Return to Flight Utilities and Logistics Flight (ULF-2) to the International Space Station.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - A forklift lowers one of two containers with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) equipment onto the ground in front of the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility. The MRO was built by Lockheed Martin for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. It is the next major step in Mars exploration and scheduled for launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in a window opening Aug. 10. The MRO carries six primary instruments the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, Context Camera, Mars Color Imager, Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, Mars Climate Sounder and Shallow Radar. By 2007, the MRO will begin a series of global mapping, regional survey and targeted observations from a near-polar, low-altitude Mars orbit. It will observe the atmosphere and surface of Mars while probing its shallow subsurface as part of a follow the water strategy.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - At the Launch Abort System Facility at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the launch abort system, or LAS, for the Orion Exploration Flight Test-1, is backed by flatbed truck into a low bay at the facility. The low bay has been prepared for additional LAS processing.Orion is the exploration spacecraft designed to carry crews to space beyond low Earth orbit. It will provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities. The LAS is designed to safely pull the Orion crew module away from the launch vehicle in the event of an emergency on the launch pad or during the initial ascent of NASAs Space Launch System, or SLS, rocket. Orions first unpiloted test flight is scheduled to launch in 2014 atop a Delta IV rocket. A second uncrewed flight test is scheduled for 2017 on the SLS rocket.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - In the Space Shuttle Main Engine Processing Facility at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a transportation canister containing a Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne space shuttle main engine (SSME) is secured onto a flatbed trailer.This is the second of the 15 engines used during the Space Shuttle Program to be transported to NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The engines will be stored at Stennis for future use on NASA's new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), which will carry NASA's new Orion spacecraft, cargo, equipment and science experiments to space.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - The first stage of the Delta II rocket is in the process of being raised to a vertical position on NASA's Space Launch Complex 2 (SLC-2) at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The rocket will carry the ICESat and CHIPSat satellites into Earth orbits. ICESat is a 661-pound satellite known as Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) that will revolutionize our understanding of ice and its role in global climate change and how we protect and understand our home planet. It will help scientists determine if the global sea level is rising or falling. It will look at the ice sheets that blanket the Earth's poles to see if they are growing or shrinking. It will assist in developing an understanding of how changes in the Earth's atmosphere and climate effect polar ice masses and global sea level. CHIPSat, a suitcase-size 131-pound satellite, will provide invaluable information into the origin, physical processes and properties of the hot gas contained in the inte

The third and final aeroshell for Orion's Launch Abort System (LAS) arrives by flatbed truck in High Bay 4 of the Vehicle Assembly Building on July 12, 2018, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The aeroshell was shipped from EMF Inc. on nearby Merritt Island. It will be offloaded and secured in the high bay. The aeroshells will be stacked and prepared for a full-stress test of the LAS, called Ascent Abort-2 (AA-2) flight test, scheduled for April 2019. During the test, a booster will launch from Space Launch Complex 46 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying a fully functional LAS and a 22,000-pound Orion test vehicle to an altitude of 31,000 feet and traveling at more than 1,000 miles an hour. The test will verify the LAS can steer the crew module and astronauts aboard to safety in the event of an issue with the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket when the spacecraft is under the highest aerodynamic loads it will experience during a rapid climb into space. Orion is being pre

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - In front of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a technician uses a forklift to move a fuel tank after it was removed from crawler-transporter 1 CT-1 in high bay 3. The fuel tank will be transporter to the Wiltech facility at Kennedy for cleaning and inspection. Work continues in high bay 3 to upgrade CT-1 as part of its general maintenance. CT-1 could be available to carry commercial launch vehicles 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.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - At NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, workers enlist a crane to lift the movable launch platform for the Project Morpheus lander onto a flatbed truck for its move from the midfield to the north end of the Shuttle Landing Facility, or SLF.Testing of the prototype lander has been ongoing at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston in preparation for free flight. The lander is scheduled for delivery to Kennedy in October. The SLF will provide the lander with the kind of field necessary for realistic testing, complete with rocks, craters and hazards to avoid. Morpheus utilizes an autonomous landing and hazard avoidance technology, or ALHAT, payload that will allow it to navigate to clear landing sites amidst obstacles during its descent. Project Morpheus is one of 20 small projects comprising the Advanced Exploration Systems, or AES, program in NASAs Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. AES projects pioneer new approaches for rapidly developin

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - At the Canister Rotation Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the shipping container with the Multi-Use Lightweight Equipment (MULE) carrier inside is pressure cleaned after its arrival. The MULE is part of the payload for the fifth and final shuttle servicing mission to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, STS-125. The MULE carrier will join the Flight Support System, the Super Lightweight Interchangeable Carrier and the Orbital Replacement Unit Carrier in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility where the Hubble payload is being prepared for launch. The Relative Navigation Sensors and the New Outer Blanket Layers will be on the MULE. The payload is scheduled to go to Launch Pad 39A in mid-September to be installed into Atlantis' payload bay. Atlantis is targeted to launch Oct. 8 at 1:34 a.m. EDT. .

A crane lifts a United Launch Alliance Atlas V first stage at the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The rocket will be positioned on its launcher to boost the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, or GOES-S. It will be the second in a series of four advanced geostationary weather satellites and will significantly improve the detection and observation of environmental phenomena that directly affect public safety. GOES-S is slated to launch March 1, 2018.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a crane lifts the next section of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, or AMS, toward a tractor-trailer which will transport the AMS from the Shuttle Landing Facility runway to the Space Station Processing Facility, where it will be processed for launch.AMS, a state-of-the-art particle physics detector, is designed to operate as an external module on the International Space Station. It will use the unique environment of space to study the universe and its origin by searching for dark matter. AMS will fly to the International Space Station aboard space shuttle Endeavour's STS-134 mission, targeted to launch Feb. 26, 2011.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- At KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility, workers load the S0 truss segment onto a flatbed trailer for its transfer to the Operations and Checkout Bldg. for processing. The truss arrived at the SLF aboard a "Super Guppy" aircraft from Boeing in Huntington, Calif. During processing in the O&C, the S0 truss will have installed the Canadian Mobile Transporter, power distribution system modules, a heat pipe radiator for cooling, computers, and a pair of rate gyroscopes. Four Global Positioning System antennas are already installed. A 44by 15-foot structure weighing 30,800 pounds when fully outfitted and ready for launch, the truss will be at the center of the ISS 10-truss, girderlike structure that will ultimately extend the length of a football field. Eventually the S0 truss will be attached to the U.S. Lab, "Destiny," which is scheduled to be added to the ISS in April 2000. Later, other trusses will be attached to the S0 on-orbit. The S0 truss is scheduled to be la

A740586 U2AX PORTMANTAU TRAILER SHOCKMOUNTING LEO BRADY (Project Engineer) AUG 16 74EG&G/NTS PHOTO LAB Publication Date: 8/16/1974 BRACING (BUILDING); BRADY, LEO; CABLES (NON ELECTRIC COMPANY); EDGERTON, GERMESHAUSEN & GRIER; EG&G; FASTENERS; FASTENING & GRIPPING TOOLS; INSTRUMENTS & EQUIPMENT; NEVADA; NEVADA TEST SITE; NTS; NUCLEAR ENERGY TECHNOLOGY; NUCLEAR TESTING; NUCLEAR TESTS; PORTMANTAU; ROPES, KNOTS & CHAINS; SHOCK ABSORPTION TECHNOLOGY; SHOCKMOUNTING; TEST SITES; TRAILER F-10; TRAILER SHOCK MOUNTING; TRAILERS; TRAILERS, MOTOR DRAWN; UGT; UNDERGROUND TESTING; PORTMANTAU-SHOCKMOUNTING historical images. 1972 - 2012. Department of Energy. National Nuclear Security Administration. Photographs Related to Nuclear Weapons Testing at the Nevada Test Site.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - In the Space Shuttle Main Engine Processing Facility at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a Pratt Whitney Rocketdyne space shuttle main engine (SSME) is installed in a transportation canister.This is the second of the 15 engines used during the Space Shuttle Program to be prepared for transfer to NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The engines will be stored at Stennis for future use on NASA's new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), which will carry NASA's new Orion spacecraft, cargo, equipment and science experiments to space.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Inside the KSC Engine Shop, Boeing-Rocketdyne technicians attach an overhead crane to the container enclosing the third Space Shuttle Main Engine for Discoverys Return to Flight mission STS-114 arrives at the KSC Engine Shop aboard a trailer. The engine is returning from NASAs Stennis Space Center in Mississippi where it underwent a hot fire acceptance test. Typically, the engines are installed on an orbiter in the Orbiter Processing Facility approximately five months before launch.

The Port of Felixstowe is Britain's busiest container port and one of the largest in Europe, Felixstowe, Suffolk, England

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Ares I-X forward center segment moves into the transfer aisle of the Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB. The launch vehicle is being assembled in the VAB's High Bay 3. Part of the Constellation Program, the Ares I-X is the test vehicle for the Ares I, which is the essential core of a space transportation system that eventually will carry crewed missions back to the moon, on to Mars and out into the solar system . The Ares I-X flight test is targeted for no earlier than Aug. 30.

A volunteer "astronaut" starts down an exit slide from a Space Shuttle crew compartment mockup during a rescue and recovery training exercise.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - Preparations are under way to roll the transporter from under NASAs Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, mated to Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket, which was just attached beneath Orbitals L-1011 carrier aircraft at the “hot pad,” located on the ramp adjacent to the runway on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.The duo will be flown from Vandenberg to the U.S. Army's Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll, part of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Pegasus and its NuSTAR payload will be launched June 13 from the carrier aircraft 117 nautical miles south of Kwajalein at latitude 6.75 degrees north of the equator. The high-energy X-ray telescope will conduct a census of black holes, map radioactive material in young supernovae remnants, and study the origins of cosmic rays and the extreme physics around collapsed stars.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - After arriving at Launch Complex 17-A, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the second half of the fairing for the Mars Exploration Rover 2 (MER-2/MER-A) is lifted off its transporter. The fairing will be installed around the payload for protection during launch. The MER Mission consists of two identical rovers designed to cover roughly 110 yards each Martian day over various terrain. Each rover will carry five scientific instruments that will allow it to search for evidence of liquid water that may have been present in the planet's past. Identical to each other, the rovers will land at different regions of Mars. Launch date for MER-A is scheduled for June 5.

MegaFon, Sochi Winter Olympics 2014, Sochi, Russia. Architect: Asif Khan, 2014. Finishing work on Olympic Park before opening.

A860368 U20AI JEFFERSON TEST TRAILER SHOCK MOUNTING BROUILLARD, A JOHN (Project Engineer) MAR 5 86 EG&G/NTS PHOTO LAB Publication Date: 3/5/1986 BROUILLARD, A JOHN; EDGERTON, GERMESHAUSEN & GRIER; EG&G; EQUIPMENT & INSTRUMENTS; INSTRUMENTS; INSTRUMENTS & EQUIPMENT; INSTRUMENTS AND EQUIPMENT; JEFFERSON TEST; NEVADA TEST SITE; NTS; NUCLEAR ENERGY TECHNOLOGY; NUCLEAR TESTING; NUCLEAR TESTS; S-3; SANDIA EQUIPMENT & FACILITIES; SHOCK MOUNTING; TEST SITES; TESTING; TRAILER SHOCK MOUNTING; UGT; UNDERGROUND TESTING; WEAPON EFFECTS; WEAPONS RELATED; WEAPONS TECHNOLOGY; U20AI JEFFERSON SHOCK MOUNTING historical images. 1972 - 2012. Department of Energy. National Nuclear Security Administration. Photographs Related to Nuclear Weapons Testing at the Nevada Test Site.

Workers push the pallet supporting the transportation container protecting NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive, or SMAP, spacecraft into the Astrotech payload processing facility on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. SMAP will launch on a Delta II 7320 configuration vehicle featuring a United Launch Alliance first stage booster powered by an Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-27A main engine and three Alliant Techsystems, or ATK, strap-on solid rocket motors. Once on station in Earth orbit, SMAP will provide global measurements of soil moisture and its freeze/thaw state. These measurements will be used to enhance understanding of processes that link the water, energy and carbon cycles, and to extend the capabilities of weather and climate prediction models. SMAP data also will be used to quantify net carbon flux in boreal landscapes and to develop improved flood prediction and drought monitoring capabilities. Launch from Space Launch Complex 2 is targeted for Jan. 29, 2015.

Senior Airman Andrew Small, 436th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron hydraulic systems journeyman, lowers the number three main landing gear strut assembly to perform maintenance on a C-5M Super Galaxy at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, Oct. 6, 2022. Small and other hydraulic system maintainers replaced internal seals on the strut during a repack procedure.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Technicians complete the removal of main engine No. 1 from space shuttle Discovery using a specially designed engine installer, called a Hyster forklift. The work is taking place in Orbiter Processing Facility-2 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The removal is part of Discovery's transition and retirement processing. Work performed on Discovery is expected to help rocket designers build next-generation spacecraft and prepare the shuttle for future public display.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- One of the repaired Jacking, Equalization and Leveling (JEL) cylinders is moved from the repair site for installation into Crawler Transporter No. 2. There are 16 cylinders and 32 bearings per crawler. During recent routine maintenance inspections, technicians removed two of the 16 JEL cylinders on the crawler to gain access to the bearings and found three of the four bearings cracked. Further eddy current inspections indicated that cracks were present on 15 of the bearings.. Technicians have removed and replaced 14 of the bearings on CT-2, which is being repaired in order to enable Atlantis' rollout for mission STS-112, scheduled for launch no earlier than Oct. 2.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- At Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the transporter holding NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory, or OCO, heads for Launch Complex 576-E. OCO will collect precise global measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth's atmosphere. Scientists will analyze OCO data to improve our understanding of the natural processes and human activities that regulate the abundance and distribution of this important greenhouse gas. OCO is scheduled to launch Feb. 24 aboard an Orbital Sciences' Taurus XL rocket.

The Soyuz TMA-13M rocket is seen inside Building 112 prior to being rolled out to the launch pad by train on Monday, May 26, 2014, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Launch of the Soyuz rocket is scheduled for May 29 and will send Expedition 40 Soyuz Commander Maxim Suraev, of the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst, of the European Space Agency, ESA, and Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman of NASA on a five and a half month mission aboard the International Space Station.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - Workers guide the second stage for NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 mission, or OCO-2, into the Horizontal Processing Facility at Space Launch Complex 2 on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. OCO-2 is scheduled to launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket in July. The rocket's second stage will insert OCO-2 into a polar Earth orbit. OCO-2 will collect precise global measurements of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere and provide scientists with a better idea of the chemical compound's impacts on climate change. Scientists will analyze this data to improve our understanding of the natural processes and human activities that regulate the abundance and distribution of this important atmospheric gas.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the third segment of the launch mount for a new mobile launcher, or ML, being constructed to support NASA's future human spaceflight program is lifted from the tractor-trailer on which it was delivered. The construction is taking place in the mobile launcher park site north of Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building. The new launcher is 355 feet tall and has multiple platforms for personnel access. The base of the launcher is lighter than space shuttle mobile launcher platforms so the crawler-transporter can pick up the heavier load of the tower and a taller rocket.

Inside Building 836 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the top of the shipping container is lifted up from the payload fairings for the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta II rocket. NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) is scheduled to launch on the final ULA Delta II rocket later this year. ICESat-2 will measure the height of a changing Earth, one laser pulse at a time, 10,000 laser pulses a second. The satellite will carry a single instrument, the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System. ICESat-2 will help scientists investigate why, and how much our planet's frozen and icy areas, called the cryosphere, is changing in a warming climate.

The United Launch Alliance Centaur upper stage that will help launch the Solar Orbiter spacecraft is removed from the companys Rocketship vessel upon its arrival at Floridas Port Canaveral on Nov. 21, 2019. Also onboard is the Atlas V rockets first-stage booster. Once offloaded, the booster was transported to the Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center and the Centaur was transported to a separate facility, both at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Solar Orbiter is a European Space Agency mission with strong NASA participation. The mission aims to study the Sun, its outer atmosphere and solar winds. The spacecraft will provide the first images of the Suns poles. NASAs Launch Services Program based at Kennedy is managing the launch. Liftoff is scheduled for Feb. 5, 2020, from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station aboard the ULA Atlas V rocket.

Inside NASA's Building 1555 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the United Launch Alliance Delta II second stage was lifted out of its shipping container and a crane is being used to lower it onto the base of a transporter. The second stage will be moved to the horizontal processing facility at Space Launch Complex-2. NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) will launch later this year on the final Delta II rocket. ICESat-2 will measure the height of a changing Earth, one laser pulse at a time, 10,000 laser pulses a second. The satellite will carry a single instrument, the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System. ICESat-2 will help scientists investigate why, and how much our planet's frozen and icy areas, called the cryosphere, is changing in a warming climate.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - Preparations are underway to lift half of the fairing for NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 mission, or OCO-2, into a vertical position at Space Launch Complex 2 on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Operations are underway to hoist this section of the fairing into the Delta II launcher's environmental enclosure, or clean room, at the top of the tower. The fairing will protect OCO-2 during launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket from Space Launch Complex 2 in July. The observatory will collect precise global measurements of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere and provide scientists with a better idea of the chemical compound's impacts on climate change. Scientists will analyze this data to improve our understanding of the natural processes and human activities that regulate the abundance and distribution of this important atmospheric gas.

Mobile Housing Units (MHU) for use by survivors recovering from the California wildfires arrive to an inspection station at McClellan Park near Sacramento. FEMA is providing MHU' for those disaster survivors who qualify for temporary housing and has set up this inspection station to ensure that the units are clean and free of damage following the road trip from FEMA's staging area near Selma, Alabama.. California Valley Fire and Butte Fire. Photographs Relating to Disasters and Emergency Management Programs, Activities, and Officials

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - At Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Fla., workers secure an overhead crane to the shipping container that holds NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO. SDO is the first space weather research network mission in NASA's Living With a Star Program. The spacecraft's long-term measurements will give solar scientists in-depth information about changes in the sun's magnetic field and insight into how they affect Earth. In preparation for its anticipated November launch, engineers will perform a battery of comprehensive tests to ensure SDO can withstand the stresses and vibrations of the launch itself, as well as what it will encounter in the space environment after launch.

MOJAVE DESERT, Calif. - In the Mojave Desert in California, students and engineers unload the Garvey Spacecraft Corporation's Prospector P-18D rocket from a truck at the launch site. The rocket is scheduled for launch June 15 with the RUBICS-1 payload on a high-altitude, suborbital flight. The rocket will carry four satellites made from four-inch cube sections.Collectively known as CubeSats, the satellites will record shock, vibrations and heat inside the rocket. They will not be released during the test flight, but the results will be used to prove or strengthen their designs before they are carried into orbit in 2014 on a much larger rocket. A new, lightweight carrier is also being tested for use on future missions to deploy the small spacecraft. The flight also is being watched closely as a model for trying out new or off-the-shelf technologies quickly before putting them in the pipeline for use on NASA's largest launchers. Built by several different organizations, including a u

Personnel with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) conduct staging operations in support of Hurricane Ian disaster relief at Avon Park Air Force Range, Florida, Oct. 3, 2022. USACE provided generator power support to their dedicated region as directed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - A transport trailer carrying a solid rocket booster is opened up after arriving at the Vertical Integration Facility on Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The booster rocket will be mated, along with others, to the Atlas V already in the VIF. The Atlas V is the launch vehicle for NASAs New Horizons spacecraft, scheduled to launch in January 2006 on a journey to Pluto and its moon, Charon.

Mechanics maintaining fire engine

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - At the Canister Rotation Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, workers steam clean the shipping containers holding the first major flight hardware for space shuttle Atlantis' STS-125 mission to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The containers will next be moved to the airlock in the Payload Hazardous Servicing facility where the hardware will be prepared for its targeted October launch. The payload carriers will be prepared for the integration of telescope science instruments, both internal and external replacement components, as well as the flight support equipment to be used by the astronauts during the servicing mission. The three payload carriers or pallets are the Flight Support System, the Super Lightweight Interchangeable Carrier and the Orbital Replacement Unit Carrier. At the end of July, a fourth and final carrier, the Multi-Use Lightweight Equipment carrier will join the others in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility where the Hubble payload is

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- A flat bed truck hauls the container with the Experiment Logistics Module Pressurized Section inside away from the Trident wharf. The logistics module is part of the Japanese Experiment Module, known as Kibo. The logistics module is being transported to the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Kibo consists of six components: two research facilities -- the Pressurized Module and Exposed Facility; a Logistics Module attached to each of them; a Remote Manipulator System; and an Inter-Orbit Communication System unit. Kibo also has a scientific airlock through which experiments are transferred and exposed to the external environment of space. Kibo is Japan's first human space facility and its primary contribution to the station. Kibo will enhance the unique research capabilities of the orbiting complex by providing an additional environment in which astronauts can conduct science experiments. The various components of JEM will

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Segments of a crane arrive at the Operations and Checkout Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The new O&C low-bay crane is a 25-ton overhead bridge crane built for Lockheed Martin and Space Florida by American Crane and Equipment Corporation in Douglasville, Pa. The crane has a bridge span of 78-2” and a hook height of 48-10”. The crane will be used for lifting and moving flight hardware, fixtures and equipment in support of the Orion spacecraft manufacturing. Part of NASA's Constellation Program, the Orion spacecraft will return humans to the moon and prepare for future voyages to Mars and other destinations in our solar system.

A forklift positions a shelter/container at a staging area in preparation for shipment to Saudi Arabia in support of Operation Desert Shield. Subject Operation/Series: DESERT SHIELD Base: Morehead City State: North Carolina (NC) Country: United States Of America (USA)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Inside the Assembly and Refurbishment Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Ares I-X forward skirt is lifted off the transporter that carried it from the Astrotech facility. The segment will be lifted off the transporter and placed on supports on the floor. United Space Alliance, under a subcontract to ATK, will complete the integration and assembly of the forward skirt components in the ARF. It will then be moved to the Vehicle Assembly Building high bay 3 for stacking operations. The forward skirt is the initial piece of first-stage hardware in preparation for the July 2009 test flight of the agency's next-generation spacecraft and launch vehicle system. Built entirely of armored steel, the 14,000-pound segment is seven feet tall and 12-1/4 feet wide.

Earthquake Tsunami - Pago Pago, American Samoa, October 2, 2009 FEMA generators are being unloaded from a C-17 military cargo plane. FEMA shipped generators from its warehouses to American Samoa to help provide electric power to critical facilities in American Samoa.. American Samoa Earthquake, Tsunami, and Flooding. Photographs Relating to Disasters and Emergency Management Programs, Activities, and Officials

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians prepare piping for a new exhaust system for installation in crawler-transporter 1, or CT-1. Work continues in high bay 3 to upgrade CT-1 as part of its general maintenance. CT-1 could be available to carry commercial launch vehicles 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.

SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) primary mirror being moved into N-211, readied and move into the Ames Vacuum Chamber for the coating process.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - At Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, a transporter is moved toward the Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL inside Orbitals hanger. The rocket is mated to NASAs encapsulated Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, out of sight inside the hangar. The transporter will move them to the runway ramp where they will be attached to the underside of Orbitals L-1011 carrier aircraft.The aircraft will fly the pair from Vandenberg to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site on the Pacific Oceans Kwajalein Atoll for launch. A revised launch date is expected to be set at the Flight Readiness Review. The high-energy X-ray telescope will conduct a census of black holes, map radioactive material in young supernovae remnants, and study the origins of cosmic rays and the extreme physics around collapsed stars.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - A solid rocket motor for the Delta II rocket for NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive mission, or SMAP, is delivered to the mobile service tower at Space Launch Complex 2 on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.SMAP will be launched on a Delta II 7320 configuration vehicle featuring a United Launch Alliance first stage booster powered by an Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-27A main engine and three Alliant Techsystems, or ATK, strap-on solid rocket motors. Once on station in Earth orbit, SMAP will provide global measurements of soil moisture and its freeze/thaw state. These measurements will be used to enhance understanding of processes that link the water, energy and carbon cycles, and to extend the capabilities of weather and climate prediction models. SMAP data also will be used to quantify net carbon flux in boreal landscapes and to develop improved flood prediction and drought monitoring capabilities. Launch is scheduled for no earlier than November 20

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA's twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft are transported from the Astrotech Space Operation's payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla., to their launch pad at Space Launch Complex 17B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The lunar probes are attached to a spacecraft adapter ring in their side-by-side launch configuration and wrapped in plastic to prevent contamination outside the clean room.The spacecraft will fly in tandem orbits around the moon for several months to measure its gravity field. GRAIL's primary science objectives are to determine the structure of the lunar interior, from crust to core, and to advance understanding of the thermal evolution of the moon. Launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket is scheduled for Sept. 8.

Pallets of food from the relief organization Feed My Starving Children are loaded at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Air Reserve Station in Minnesota June 7, 2012. The shipment will be sent to Managua, Nicaragua, utilizing the Denton Program, which allows donors to put humanitarian supplies aboard U.S. military transport on a space-available basis.

A forklift operator positions equipment aboard the aviation logistic ship USNS WRIGHT (T-AVB 3) during exercise OCEAN VENTURE '88. Subject Operation/Series: OCEAN VENTURE '88 Base: Nas, Roosevelt Roads State: Puerto Rico (PR) Country: United States Of America (USA)

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - The second stage for NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 mission, or OCO-2, is being towed from the Building 836 hangar to the Horizontal Processing Facility at Space Launch Complex 2 on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. OCO-2 is scheduled to launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket in July. The rocket's second stage will insert OCO-2 into a polar Earth orbit. OCO-2 will collect precise global measurements of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere and provide scientists with a better idea of the chemical compound's impacts on climate change. Scientists will analyze this data to improve our understanding of the natural processes and human activities that regulate the abundance and distribution of this important atmospheric gas.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Trucks pull into the Vehicle Assembly Building's high bay 4 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. They carry Ares I-X upper stage simulator segments that arrived Nov. 4 at Port Canaveral, Fla., aboard the Delta Mariner. The upper stage simulators will be used in the test flight identified as Ares I-X in 2009. The Ares I-X test flight will provide NASA an early opportunity to test and prove hardware, facilities and ground operations associated with the Ares I crew launch vehicle. It also will allow NASA to gather critical data during ascent of the integrated Orion crew exploration vehicle and the Ares I rocket. The data will ensure the entire vehicle system is safe and fully operational before astronauts begin traveling to orbit. The simulator segments will simulate the mass and the outer mold line and will be more than 100 feet of the total vehicle height of 327 feet. The simulator comprises 11 segments that are approximately 18 feet in diameter. Most

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Workers load a container holding NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rocket-powered descent stage that will fly the rover during the final moments before landing on Mars, onto a transporter after arrival at NASA Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida. The MSL rover known as Curiosity is also aboard the Air Force C-17 cargo plane ready for unloading.A United Launch Alliance Atlas V-541 configuration will be used to loft MSL into space. Curiositys 10 science instruments are designed to search for evidence on whether Mars has had environments favorable to microbial life, including chemical ingredients for life. The unique rover will use a laser to look inside rocks and release its gasses so that the rovers spectrometer can analyze and send the data back to Earth. MSL is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida Nov. 25 with a window extending to Dec. 18 and arrival at Mars Aug. 2012.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The repaired Jacking, Equalization and Leveling (JEL) cylinder is attached to a crane. The crane will lift the JEL for placement in Crawler Transporter No. 2. There are 16 cylinders and 32 bearings per crawler. During recent routine maintenance inspections, technicians removed two of the 16 JEL cylinders on the crawler to gain access to the bearings and found three of the four bearings cracked. Further eddy current inspections indicated that cracks were present on 15 of the bearings.. Technicians have removed and replaced 14 of the bearings on CT-2, which is being repaired in order to enable Atlantis' rollout for mission STS-112, scheduled for launch no earlier than Oct. 2.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Workers maneuver the payload transporter carrying the environmentally controlled shipping container enclosing NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) into position in the airlock of processing facility 1555 at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in California.The spacecraft arrived at 7:52 a.m. PST after a cross-country trip which began Jan. 24 from Orbital Sciences' manufacturing plant in Dulles, Va. The spacecraft will be removed from the shipping container in the airlock and transferred into the processing hangar, joining the Pegasus XL rocket that is set to carry it to space. After checkout and other processing activities are complete, the spacecraft will be integrated with the Pegasus in mid-February and encapsulation in the vehicle fairing will follow. The rocket and spacecraft then will be flown on Orbital's L-1011 carrier aircraft to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site at the Pacific Ocean's Kwajalein Atoll for

DF-ST-87-08192. Base: Sondrestrom Air Base Country: Greenland (GRL)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- On Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, workers prepare to begin removing the quick disconnect from the ground umbilical carrier plate (GUCP) on space shuttle Discovery's external fuel tank. A hydrogen gas leak at that location during tanking for the STS-133 mission to the International Space Station caused the launch attempt to be scrubbed Nov. 5. The GUCP will be examined to determine the cause of the hydrogen leak and then repaired. The GUCP is the overboard vent to the pad and the flame stack where the vented hydrogen is burned off. Discovery's next launch attempt is targeted for no earlier than Nov. 30 at 4:02 a.m. EST.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V booster is prepared for transport to Space Launch Complex 3 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The rocket will launch NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, or InSight, mission to land on Mars. InSight is the first mission to explore the Red Planet's deep interior. It will investigate processes that shaped the rocky planets of the inner solar system including Earth. Liftoff is scheduled for May 5, 2018.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - This view from the mobile service tower on Launch Complex 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, shows two solid rocket boosters (SRBs) already suspended in the tower while another is being lifted. They are three of nine 46-inch-diameter, stretched SRBs that are being attached to the Delta II Heavy rocket that will launch the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF). Consisting of three cryogenically cooled science instruments and an 0.85-meter telescope, SIRTF is one of NASA's largest infrared telescopes to be launched. SIRTF will obtain images and spectra by detecting the infrared energy, or heat, radiated by objects in space. Most of this infrared radiation is blocked by the Earth's atmosphere and cannot be observed from the ground.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- At Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, Stage 1, 2 and 3, is moved into a protective area at Space Launch Complex 576-E. Stage 1-3 will then be joined with Stage 0 and the Stage 0/1 interstage, already secured on the launch pad. The Orbital Sciences Corp. Taurus XL rocket will carry NASA's Glory spacecraft into low Earth orbit. Once Glory reaches orbit, it will collect data on the properties of aerosols and black carbon. It also will help scientists understand how the sun's irradiance affects Earth's climate. Launch is scheduled for 5:09 a.m. EST Feb. 23. For information, visit www.nasa.gov/glory.

Manufacturing Division (Code JM) Projects. Damon Flausburg, Mike Guerrero & Tom Glibertson working on STAR model in N-246; Metal Fabrications Br (Code JMF)

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Inside the KSC Engine Shop, Boeing-Rocketdyne technicians begin removing the end of the container enclosing the third Space Shuttle Main Engine for Discoverys Return to Flight mission STS-114. The engine is returning from NASAs Stennis Space Center in Mississippi where it underwent a hot fire acceptance test. Typically, the engines are installed on an orbiter in the Orbiter Processing Facility approximately five months before launch.

A Marine guides the driver of a forklift as a shelter/container is positioned at a staging area in preparation for shipment to Saudi Arabia in support of Operation Desert Shield. Subject Operation/Series: DESERT SHIELD Base: Morehead City State: North Carolina (NC) Country: United States Of America (USA)

STS-132 ATLANTIS - HEAT SHIELD INSTALLATION

The 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft, wrapped in protective covering, leaves the Space Assembly and Encapsulation Facility 2 on a transporter to Launch Pad 17-A, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The Mars Odyssey is scheduled for launch at 11:02 a.m. EDT April 7, 2001, aboard a Delta II rocket from Launch Pad 17-A, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The spacecraft will map the Martian surface in search of geological features that could indicate the presence of water, now or in the past, and may contribute significantly toward understanding what will be necessary for a more sophisticated exploration of Mars

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - Workers secure the Delta II interstage adapter, or ISA, for NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive mission, or SMAP, onto the flatbed of the truck that will transport it to the pad from the Building 836 hangar on south Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.A United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket will loft SMAP into orbit from Vandenberg's Space Launch Complex 2. The ISA connects the Delta II first and second stages and encloses the second stage engine and thrust section. The spacecraft will provide global measurements of soil moisture and its freeze/thaw state. These measurements will be used to enhance understanding of processes that link the water, energy and carbon cycles, and to extend the capabilities of weather and climate prediction models. The data returned also will be used to quantify net carbon flux in boreal landscapes and to develop improved flood prediction and drought monitoring capabilities. Launch is scheduled for November 2014.

Riverside, Calif., Nov. 1, 2012 A fleet of more than 70 Southern California Edison utility trucks is being prepared for transport to the East Coast to help restore power in areas devastated by Hurricane Sandy. The U.S. Air Force will use six C-5 and eight C-17 aircraft to transport the vehicles from March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County.. Photographs Relating to Disasters and Emergency Management Programs, Activities, and Officials

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Modifications continue on the Multi-Payload Processing Facility, or MPPF, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The high bay entrance was recently enlarged and a new door installed. Construction workers are installing new siding around the entrance.Kennedy's Center Operations Directorate is overseeing upgrades to the MPPF for the Ground Systems Development and Operations Program. The extensive upgrades and modernizations will support processing of Orion spacecraft for NASA's exploration missions. The 19,647-square-foot building, originally constructed in 1995, primarily will be used for Orion hypergolic fueling, ammonia servicing and high-pressure gas servicing and checkout before being transported to the Vehicle Assembly Building for integration with the Space Launch System.

VANDENBERG AFB, Calif. - A truck moves the first stage booster of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V to Space Launch Complex-3E at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. in preparation for the launch of the Landsat Data Continuity Mission. The Landsat Data Continuity Mission, or LDCM, is the future of Landsat satellites. It will continue to obtain valuable data and imagery to be used in agriculture, education, business, science, and government. The Landsat Program provides repetitive acquisition of high resolution multispectral data of the Earth's surface on a global basis. The data from the Landsat spacecraft constitute the longest record of the Earth's continental surfaces as seen from space. It is a record unmatched in quality, detail, coverage, and value. Launch is planned for Feb. 2013.

The container transporting the Node 1, the first element of the International Space Station to be manufactured in the United States and the first to be launched on the Space Shuttle, is moved into the Space Station Processing Facility high bay June 23 after its arrival from NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). The Node 1 module is currently scheduled to lift off aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in July 1998 along with Pressurized Mating Adapters (PMAs) 1 and 2. The 18-foot in diameter, 22-foot-long aluminum module was manufactured by the Boeing Co. at MSFC. Once in space, the Node 1 will function as a connecting passageway to the living and working areas of the International Space Station. It has six hatches that will serve as docking ports to the U.S. laboratory module, U.S. habitation module, an airlock and other space station elements

Staff Sgt. Amber Martine, 157th Air Refueling Wing Logistics Readiness Squadron (LRS), New Hampshire Air National Guard, serves as a spotter while fellow aerail porter Airman Rachel Pincence operates a forklift to move palletized cargo on the flightline at Pease Air National Guard Base, Newington, N.H., May 12, 2022. The aerial port duo were moving the pallet to validate its weight prior to it being loaded on an aircraft as part of a military readiness exercise held May 12-15. (U.S. Air National Guard photo/Senior Master Sgt. Timm Huffman)

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - The Centaur (Block I) upper stage is rolled into the hangar of the Atlas Space Operations Center where it will be processed for mating 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.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Workers in the Canister Rotation Facility at NASAs Kennedy Space Center observe the Payload Canister after its rotation to a vertical position. The canister will be transported to Launch Pad 39B. The payloads inside, including the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Raffaello and External Stowage Platform-2, will be moved into the Payload Changeout Room in the Rotating Service Structure and then installed in Discoverys payload bay. Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to launch on Return to Flight mission STS-114 to the International Space Station. The launch window extends from May 22 to June 3.

Teams from NASA, Boeing and the White Sands Missile Range, rehearse landing and crew extraction from Boeings CST-100 Starliner, which will be used to carry humans to the International Space Station, on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019 at the White Sands Missile Range outside Las Cruces, New Mexico. Using a convoy of vehicles Boeing uses to recover their spacecraft after landing and a boiler plate test article of the Starliner capsule, the teams worked through the steps necessary to safe the vehicle and get future crew members out of the Starliner to return home. NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Nicole Mann and Boeing astronaut Chris Ferguson will fly to the space station aboard the Starliner for the Boeing Crew Flight Test mission.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Workers on Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California maneuver the transporter with the Delta II second stage into place. It will be lifted into the mobile service tower and installed on the first stage for launch of the OSTM/Jason-2 spacecraft. The OSTM, or Ocean Topography Mission, on the Jason-2 satellite is a follow-on to Jason-1. It will take oceanographic studies of sea surface height into an operational mode for continued climate forecasting research and science and industrial applications. This satellite altimetry data will help determine ocean circulation, climate change and sea-level rise. OSTM is a joint effort by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA, Frances Centre National dEtudes Spatiales and the European Meteorological Satellite Organisation. OSTM/Jason-2 will be launched on June 20.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The United Launch Alliance Atlas V first stage booster for NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes is in place inside the Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center, or ASOC, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.The Radiation Belt Storm Probes, or RBSP, mission will help us understand the suns influence on Earth and near-Earth space by studying the Earths radiation belts on various scales of space and time.

Technicians and engineers at Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, begin lifting a United Launch Alliance/Orbital ATK solid rocket motor for mating to a Delta II rocket in preparation for launch of the Joint Polar Satellite System-1 (JPSS-1) later this year. JPSS, a next-generation environmental satellite system, is a collaborative program between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA.

SAN DIEGO, Calif. - The Orion boilerplate test vehicle is secured on its cradle in the well deck of the U.S. Navy's USS Anchorage in preparation for Underway Recovery Test 2 in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego. Workers are installing a safety barrier near the test vehicle to keep it from going further into the well deck as it fills with water. NASA, Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Navy will conduct the test to prepare for recovery of the Orion crew module on its return from a deep space mission. The underway recovery test will allow the team to demonstrate and evaluate the recovery processes, procedures, new hardware and personnel in open waters. The Ground Systems Development and Operations Program is conducting the underway recovery test. 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

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - The Delta first-stage booster for NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 mission, or OCO-2, rests on a transportation hardware cradle in the Building 836 hangar at Space Launch Complex 2 on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California awaiting installation on the pad. OCO-2 is scheduled to launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket in July. The observatory will collect precise global measurements of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere and provide scientists with a better idea of the chemical compound's impacts on climate change. Scientists will analyze this data to improve our understanding of the natural processes and human activities that regulate the abundance and distribution of this important atmospheric gas.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Workers outside the Hypergol Maintenance Facility at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida use a crane to lift the shipping container off of space shuttle Discovery's orbital maneuvering system (OMS) pod. The OMS has been returned from White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico where it underwent a complete deservicing and cleaning. The work is part of the Space Shuttle Programs transition and retirement processing of space shuttle Discovery. The shuttle will go to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, engineers and technicians prepare the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket for stacking in the Vertical Integration Facility at Launch Complex 41. The vehicle will be used to boost the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, or TDRS-L, spacecraft to orbit.TDRS-L is the second of three next-generation satellites designed to ensure vital operational continuity for the NASA Space Network. It is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 41 atop an Atlas V rocket in January 2014. The current Tracking and Data Relay Satellite system consists of eight in-orbit satellites distributed to provide near continuous information relay service to missions such as the Hubble Space Telescope and International Space Station.

SAN DIEGO, Calif. - At the U.S. Naval Base San Diego in California, the Orion boilerplate test vehicle and support hardware are being prepared to be loaded in the well deck of the USS Anchorage for Underway Recovery Test 2. NASA, Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Navy will conduct tests in the Pacific Ocean to prepare for recovery of the Orion crew module, forward bay cover and parachutes on its return from a deep space mission. The second underway recovery test will allow the teams to demonstrate and evaluate the recovery processes, procedures, new hardware and personnel in open waters.The Ground Systems Development and Operations Program is conducting the underway recovery tests. 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 test flight

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - Workers monitor the second solid rocket motor, or SRM, for NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 mission, or OCO-2, as it is lifted into a vertical position beside the mobile service tower at Space Launch Complex 2 on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Operations are underway to attach the Delta II rocket's three SRMs, known as graphite epoxy motors, to its first stage.OCO-2 is scheduled to launch into a polar Earth orbit aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II 7320-10C rocket in July. Once in orbit, OCO-2 will collect precise global measurements of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere and provide scientists with a better idea of the chemical compound's impacts on climate change. Scientists will analyze this data to improve our understanding of the natural processes and human activities that regulate the abundance and distribution of this important atmospheric gas.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Under the night sky at Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, workers prepare the final solid rocket motor (SRM) for lifting into the Vertical Integration Facility. The SRM will be mated to a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket being prepared to launch NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission. MSL's components include a compact car-sized rover, Curiosity, which has 10 science instruments designed to search for evidence on whether Mars has had environments favorable to microbial life, including chemical ingredients for life. The unique rover will use a laser to look inside rocks and release its gasses so that the rovers spectrometer can analyze and send the data back to Earth. MSL is scheduled to launch Nov. 25 with a window extending to Dec. 18 and arrival at Mars Aug. 2012.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - In the Vehicle Assembly Building, the forward fifth segment simulator for the Ares I-X rocket is ready to be lifted for stacking with the center segment beside it. Ares I-X is the test vehicle for the Ares I, which is part of the Constellation Program to return men to the moon and beyond. Ares I is the essential core of a safe, reliable, cost-effective space transportation system that eventually will carry crewed missions back to the moon, on to Mars and out into the solar system. Ares I-X is targeted for launch in July 2009.

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