Ready for a Ride Home

Columbia sits under a mate/demate device at Boeing’s Orbiter Assembly Facility in Palmdale, Calif. It was waiting to be mated to Shuttle Carrier Aircraft no. 905 for its ferry flight to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Columbia had been undergoing modifications and upgrades at the Boeing plant. 

Final Approach

Columbia approaches touchdown on Runway 33 of Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility to complete the nearly 16-day STS-90 mission. Framed by Florida foliage and wetlands, this unique view was taken from the roof of the 525-foot-high Vehicle Assembly Building. 

Chute Deployed

With its drag chute deployed, space shuttle Columbia touches down on Runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility at 6:46:34 a.m. EDT. During the Microgravity Science Laboratory-1 mission, the Spacelab module was used to test some of the hardware, facilities and procedures that are planned for use on the International Space Station while the flight crew conducted combustion, protein crystal growth and materials processing experiments. 

This mission was a reflight of the STS-83 mission that lifted off from Kennedy in April of the same year. That space flight was cut short due to indications of a faulty fuel cell. 

Predawn Touchdown

With sunrise just minutes away, space shuttle Columbia swoops down on Runway 33 of Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility. 

Liftoff!

After six years of silence, the thunder of manned space flight is heard again as the successful launch of the first space shuttle, Columbia, ushers in a new concept in utilization of space. The launch at Pad 39A, just seconds past 7 a.m., carried astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen into an Earth orbital mission that successfully ended with an unpowered landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California. 

Sunset at Launch Pad 39A

Dramatically reflected by the waters of the extensive lagoon system adjacent to Launch Pad 39A, space shuttle Columbia, the world’s first reusable space vehicle, is lighted by spotlights and the setting sun on the evening prior to flight-readiness firing of Columbia’s main engines. The 20-second firing was a milestone procedure in flight preparation of the world’s first reusable space vehicle. 

Hang Time

Space shuttle Columbia is suspended inside the transfer aisle of Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building. Operations were under way to lift and mate the spacecraft to its external tank and solid rocket boosters. 

Special Delivery

Riding piggyback on its 747 carrier aircraft, space shuttle Columbia is only seconds away from a touchdown at Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility, completing its 2,400-mile ferry flight from Dryden Flight Research Center in California. Columbia, the first of the fleet of space shuttles, launched April 12, 1981, on the maiden voyage of the Space Shuttle Program, STS-1. 

#OV103 Discovery and the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft stand in silhouette at Kennedy before flying to Washington.

(Source: twitter.com)

The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft transporting space shuttle Discovery to its new home flies over the 525-foot-tall Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The duo took off from Kennedy’s Shuttle Landing Facility at about 7 a.m. EDT. The aircraft, known as an SCA, is a Boeing 747 jet, originally manufactured for commercial use, which was modified by NASA to transport the shuttles between destinations on Earth. This SCA, designated NASA 905, is assigned to the remaining ferry missions, delivering the shuttles to their permanent public display sites. NASA 905 is scheduled to ferry Discovery to the Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia on April 17, after which the shuttle will be placed on display in the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

(Source: Flickr / nasahqphoto)