WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:19.000 Music. 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:26.000 From touch down after a mission -- through processing for the next flight -- to liftoff again -- 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:31.000 NASA's Space Shuttle fleet calls the Kennedy Space Center home. 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:38.000 It takes a vast array of facilities and workers to prepare, launch, and land the Shuttles -- 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:45.000 a process KSC has handled for more than twenty years. 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:58.000 The first Shuttle flight blasted off from Pad 39-A at KSC on April 12, 1981. After this successful mission to test the orbiter's major systems, 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:06.000 it returned to Earth as scheduled -- landing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. -- with a KSC landing convoy standing by. 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:14.000 The California landing required a return ride to KSC aboard one of the two massive 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:18.000 Those piggy-back flights became less frequent after February 11, 1984, 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:25.000 when the first Shuttle touched down at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility -- one of the world's longest runways. 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:31.000 Since then, primarily weather has kept returning Shuttles from making the roundtrip directly to KSC, 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:36.000 since landing here saves both time and money. 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:44.000 But no matter which landing site is used, KSC's skilled crews are on call to handle the returning orbiter. 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:49.000 Landings and launches are the most visibly recognizable Shuttle events at KSC, 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:54.000 drawing live coverage by news media from across the country and around the world. 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:59.000 Permanent facilities for the major networks and news organizations are part of the Launch Complex 39 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:04.000 Press Site area, where reporters monitor the huge countdown clock. 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:16.000 Music. 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:28.000 Leading up to each mission, flight hardware is prepared at Kennedy Space Center. Astronauts practice and train while staying in the crew 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:38.000 quarters of the Operations and Checkout building. Launch dress rehearsals are staged that include practice emergency escape plans at the pad. 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:47.000 Between missions, the fleet of orbiters and other flight hardware are constantly undergoing processing by KSC's one-of-a-kind workforce. 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:53.000 Music. 00:02:53.000 --> 00:03:01.000 After the first two minutes of a Shuttle's climb toward space, the two reusable solid rocket boosters separate from the external tank 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:11.000 and parachute back toward Earth for a splash down in the Atlantic Ocean. Divers aboard two special ships -- known as Liberty Star 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:19.000 and Freedom Star -- retrieve the boosters. The ships tow them back by way of Port Canaveral so the refurbishing process can begin in 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:25.000 Hangar AF at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Even the parachutes are recovered from the ocean using 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:36.000 large reels and returned to the Parachute Refurbishment Facility where they are washed, dried and stored for reuse. 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:43.000 Music. 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:47.000 When a Shuttle returns to KSC, it's met by the Orbiter Convoy -- 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:52.000 which normally begins its operations about two hours before the scheduled return. 00:03:52.000 --> 00:04:00.000 The convoy consists of about 25 specially designed vehicles or units of a team of around 150 trained personnel. 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:12.000 They help the crew exit the orbiter and "safe" the vehicle. They tow it to the Orbiter Processing Facility within hours of landing. 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:20.000 It is here -- in one of the three high bays -- that processing begins for the next mission. Separate facilities and crews prepare 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:28.000 the multitude of components that go into the final integrated launch vehicle. One is the Thermal Protection System Facility that 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:35.000 houses the repair and manufacture of the materials that protect the exterior of each orbiter from the heat of launch and re-entry. 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:41.000 Several facilities accommodate payload processing -- including the Space Station Processing Facility -- 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:49.000 which serves as the central preflight check out point for hardware destined for the International Space Station. 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:55.000 Music. 00:04:55.000 --> 00:05:06.000 The heart of Launch Complex 39 is the huge Vehicle Assembly Building -- one of the largest buildings in the world, 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:14.000 and certainly the most recognizable at KSC. It is in the VAB that all the components -- the orbiter, 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:25.000 external tank and solid rocket booster segments -- are assembled before being moved to the launch pad. Moving at one mile per hour, 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:33.000 one of the massive crawler transporters has the heavy task of moving the Mobile Launcher Platform and assembled launch vehicle -- 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:42.000 with a combined weight of 12 million pounds -- to one of the two launch pads at Complex 39. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:50.000 There -- after final preparation -- it awaits liftoff and another mission in space. "We have a go for main engine start 00:05:50.000 --> 00:06:00.000 -- 4 -- 3 -- 2 -- 1 -- zero. We have booster ignition and liftoff of the Space Shuttle Discovery as NASA 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:07.000 embarks on the final mission …" And when that mission ends, 00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:12.000 the orbiter will return to Kennedy Space Center to start the process all over again. 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:21.000 Music. 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:26.000