#sts-114

Suspended from an overhead crane in the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the orbiter Discovery is lowered toward the Solid Rocket Booster and External Tank (seen below) already stacked on the top of the Mobile Launcher Platform (MLP). After Discovery has been mated to the External Tank/Solid Rocket Booster assembly on the MLP and all umbilicals have been connected, workers will perform an electrical and mechanical verification of the mated interfaces to verify all critical vehicle connections. A Shuttle interface test is performed using the launch processing system to verify Space Shuttle vehicle interfaces and Space Shuttle vehicle-to-ground interfaces. In approximately one week, Space Shuttle Discovery will be ready for rollout to Launch Pad 39B for Return to Flight mission STS-114. The launch window for STS-114 is May 15 to June 3.

Date: March 29, 2005

"Launched on July 26, 2005 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, STS-114 was classified as Logistics Flight 1. Among the Station-related activities of the mission were the delivery of new supplies and the replacement of one of the orbital outpost's Control Moment Gyroscopes (CMGs). STS-114 also carried the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module and the External Stowage Platform-2. A major focus of the mission was the testing and evaluation of new Space Shuttle flight safety, which included new inspection and repair techniques. Upon its approach to the International Space Station (ISS), the Space Shuttle Discovery underwent a photography session in order to assess any damages that may have occurred during its launch and/or journey through Space. Discovery was over Switzerland, about 600 feet from the ISS, when Cosmonaut Sergei K. Kriklev, Expedition 11 Commander, and John L. Phillips, NASA Space Station officer and flight engineer photographed the spacecraft as it performed a back flip to allow photography of its heat shield. Astronaut Eileen M. Collins, STS-114 Commander, guided the shuttle through the flip. The photographs were analyzed by engineers on the ground to evaluate the condition of Discovery’s heat shield. The crew safely returned to Earth on August 9, 2005. The mission historically marked the Return to Flight after nearly a two and one half year delay in flight after the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy in February 2003."

Date: July 28, 2005

Space Shuttle Discovery at night before the launch of STS-114 mission.

Date: July 12, 2005

"The Space Shuttle Discovery hitched a ride on NASA's modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft for the flight from the Dryden Flight Research Center in California, to Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on August 19, 2005. The cross-country ferry flight to return Discovery to Florida after its landing in California will take two days, with stops at several intermediate points for refueling. Space Shuttle Discovery landed safely at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California at 5:11:22 a.m. PDT, August 9, 2005, following the very successful 14-day STS-114 return to flight mission."

Date: August 19, 2005

"The crew of the next space shuttle will be able to inspect tiles over every spacecraft surface thanks to a boom that extends the shuttle's robot arm."

"KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- At right, Mike Young and Les Hanks, with United Space Alliance, prepare a window on Atlantis for removal. The windows are being removed to inspect them for contaminants in the thermal seal. Atlantis has been undergoing routine maintenance in the Orbiter Processing Facility for Return to Flight, on mission STS-114."

Date: January 23, 2004

Tile survey seen during EVA 3

"Space Shuttle Discovery's underside thermal protection tiles are featured in this image photographed by astronaut Stephen K. Robinson, STS-114 mission specialist, during the mission's third session of extravehicular activities (EVA)."

Date: August 3, 2005

"As a tribute to NASA's Space Shuttle Program, artist Brian Basset created this commemorative drawing depicting his characters, Red and Rover, racing alongside the space shuttle as it lands for the final time later this year. In 2004, Basset was honored with a one-man show of his space-themed comic strips at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. On July 26, 2005, an original drawing by Basset commemorating America's return to flight launched aboard shuttle Discovery on the STS-114 mission.

Basset created the strip in 2000 about a boy and his dog, who dream of one day going into space. Twice nominated by the National Cartoonists Society for Best Comic Strip of the Year in 2003 and 2010, Red and Rover appears in more than 160 newspapers worldwide and is syndicated by Universal Uclick. Previously, Basset worked as an editorial cartoonist for The Seattle Times."