KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - The sun is setting behind the tail of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, a modified Boeing 747, and orbiter Discovery where they are parked in the mate_demate device. Discovery was returned to Kennedy Space Center on a ferry flight from Edwards Air Force Base in California, where it landed Aug. 9 after 13 days in space on mission STS-114. In the mate_demate device, a horizontal structure mounted at the 80-foot level between two towers controls and guides a large lift beam that attaches to the orbiter to raise and lower it. Once Discovery is lifted off the back of the SC
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - The sun is setting behind the tail of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, a modified Boeing 747, and orbiter Discovery where they are parked in the mate_demate device. Discovery was returned to Kennedy Space Center on a ferry flight from Edwards Air Force Base in California, where it landed Aug. 9 after 13 days in space on mission STS-114. In the mate_demate device, a horizontal structure mounted at the 80-foot level between two towers controls and guides a large lift beam that attaches to the orbiter to raise and lower it. Once Discovery is lifted off the back of the SCA, the 747 can then roll away and the orbiter will be lowered to the ground. It will then be towed from the SLF to the Orbiter Processing Facility. Once inside the OPF, the payload bay doors will be opened and the MPLM Raffaello brought back from the International Space Station will be unloaded and transferred to the Space Station Processing Facility. This concludes mission STS-114.
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Photo credit: © NASA/piemags / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., discovery, ferry_flight, mdd, ov-103, rtf, sts-114
