page_title: Space Shuttle program
section_title: Support vehicles
hierarchical_section_title: Space Shuttle program / Support vehicles
caption_attribution_description: English: MV Freedom Star returns to Port Canaveral, Florida, with an SRB from STS-131.
context_page_description: The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. Its official name, Space Transportation System, was taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft of which it was the only item funded for development.
  The Space Shuttle—composed of an orbiter launched with two reusable solid rocket boosters and a disposable external fuel tank—carried up to eight astronauts and up to 50,000 lb of payload into low Earth orbit. When its mission was complete, the orbiter would reenter the Earth's atmosphere and land like a glider at either the Kennedy Space Center or Edwards Air Force Base.
  The Shuttle is the only winged crewed spacecraft to have achieved orbit and landing, and the only reusable crewed space vehicle that has ever made multiple flights into orbit. Its missions involved carrying large payloads to various orbits, providing crew rotation for the space station, and performing service missions on the Hubble Space Telescope.
context_section_description: Many other vehicles were used in support of the Space Shuttle program, mainly terrestrial transportation vehicles.
  The crawler-transporter carried the mobile launcher platform and the Space Shuttle from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to Launch Complex 39, originally built for Project Apollo.
  The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) were two modified Boeing 747s. Either could fly an orbiter from alternative landing sites back to the Kennedy Space Center. These aircraft were retired to the Joe Davies Heritage Airpark at the Armstrong Flight Research Center and Space Center Houston.
  A 36-wheeled transport trailer, the Orbiter Transfer System, originally built for the U.S. Air Force's launch facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California (since then converted for Delta IV rockets) would transport the orbiter from the landing facility to the launch pad, which allowed both "stacking" and launch without utilizing a separate VAB-style building and crawler-transporter roadway. Prior to the closing of the Vandenberg facility, orbiters were transported from the OPF to the VAB on their undercarriages, only to be raised when the orbiter was being lifted for attachment to the SRB/ET stack. The trailer allowed the transportation of the orbiter from the OPF to either the SCA "Mate-Demate" stand or the VAB without placing any additional stress on the undercarriage.
  The Crew Transport Vehicle (CTV), a modified airport jet bridge, was used to assist astronauts to egress from the orbiter after landing. Upon entering the CTV, astronauts could take off their launch and reentry suits then proceed to chairs and beds for medical checks before being transported back to the crew quarters in the Operations and Checkout Building. Originally built for Project Apollo.
  The Astrovan was used to transport astronauts from the crew quarters in the Operations and Checkout Building to the launch pad on launch day. It was also used to transport astronauts back again from the Crew Transport Vehicle at the Shuttle Landing Facility.
  The three locomotives serving the NASA Railroad, used to transport segments of the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters, were determined to be no longer needed for day-to-day operation at the Kennedy Space Center. In April 2015, locomotive No. 1 was sent to Natchitoches Parish Port and No. 3 sent to the Madison Railroad. Locomotive No. 2 was sent to the Gold Coast Railroad Museum in 2014.
caption: MV Freedom Star was a NASA recovery ship for the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters
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