Launch Gallery

STS-86 Launch

The Space Shuttle Atlantis blazes through the night sky to begin the STS-86 mission, slated to be the seventh of nine planned dockings of the Space Shuttle with the Russian Space Station Mir. Liftoff on September 25 from Launch Pad 39A was at 10:34 p.m. EDT, within seconds of the preferred time, during a six minute, 45 second launch window. The 10 day flight will include the transfer of the sixth U.S. astronaut to live and work aboard the Mir. After the docking, STS-86 Mission Specialist David A. Wolf will become a member of the Mir 24 crew, replacing astronaut C. Michael Foale, who will return to Earth aboard Atlantis with the remainder of the STS-86 crew. Foale has been on the Russian Space Station since mid May. Wolf is scheduled to remain there about four months. Besides Wolf (embarking to Mir) and Foale (returning), the STS-86 crew includes Commander James D. Wetherbee, Pilot Michael J. Bloomfield, and Mission Specialists Wendy B. Lawrence, Scott E. Parazynski, Vladimir Georgievich Titov of the Russian Space Agency, and Jean-Loup J.M. Chretien of the French Space Agency, CNES. Other primary objectives of the mission are a spacewalk by Parazynski and Titov, and the exchange of about 3.5 tons of science/logistical equipment and supplies between Atlantis and the Mir

© NASA

Space Shuttle launch

Space Shuttle launch, computer enhanced image. This is mission STS-99, flown by the Space Shuttle Endeavour. It launched on 11 February 2000. Space Shuttles, flown by NASA since 1981, are reusable spacecraft launched with an external fuel tank (orange) and two booster rockets (white) on either side of the external tank. Liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen fuel from the external tank is used to run the Shuttle's main internal engines (blue exhaust gases). Most of the thrust is from the two booster rockets that use an explosive solid fuel mixture. The external tank is discarded, but the booster rockets parachute back to Earth and are reused. An ascent takes about 9 minutes. The Shuttle uses its wings to glide back to Earth after it has re-entered the atmosphere

© DETLEV VAN RAVENSWAAY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Saturn V rocket launch, artwork

Saturn V rocket launch, artwork. The Saturn V was the launch vehicle for NASA's Apollo program of manned missions to the Moon. The Apollo program took place between 1961 and 1975. The Saturn V was one of the most powerful rockets ever made. Fully fuelled, the 110-metre high rocket weighed over 3000 tonnes. Five F-1 engines, burning a mixture of liquid oxygen and rocket fuel (kerosene) were used in the rocket's first stage, the stage used during take-off. The first stage burned for 2 minutes 41 seconds, lifting the rocket to an altitude of 68 kilometres. A second and third stage boosted the spacecraft to its parking orbit

© RICHARD BIZLEY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY