Parachutes recovered from sea after the launch of space shuttle Endeavour on the STS-126 mission are seen suspended from a hanging monorail system at the Parachute Refurbishment Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The parachutes are used to slow the descent of the solid rocket boosters that were jettisoned during liftoff. The monorail will transport each parachute into a 30,000-gallon washer and a huge dryer heated with 140-degree air at 13,000 cubic feet per minute. One pilot, one drogue and three main canopies per booster slow the booster’s fall from about 360 mph to 50 mph. After the chutes are cleaned and repaired, they must be carefully re-packed into their bags so they will deploy correctly the next time they are used. (NASA/Jim Grossmann) #
Backdropped by a blue and white Earth and the blackness of space, the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module visible in Space Shuttle Endeavour's payload bay, vertical stabilizer and orbital maneuvering system (OMS) pods are featured in this image photographed by a STS-126 crewmember on November 16th, 2008. (NASA) #
Space shuttle Endeavour Mission Specialist Steve Bowen (center) is seen on November 18, 2008 as he works at the starboard truss of the International Space Station during the first of four planned spacewalks for the STS-126 mission. (NASA/AFP/Getty Images) #
A thirty second camera exposure reveals the path of the International Space Station and the docked space shuttle Endeavor as the spacecraft make their way over Watertown, Wisconsin on Friday, November 21st, 2008. The two brightest planets pictured in the lower center of the frame are Jupiter, above, and Venus, below. (AP Photo/Watertown Daily Times, John Hart) #
In this handout from NASA, the Space Shuttle Endeavour's payload bay doors are seen open before docking with the International Space Station while in orbit November 16, 2008. (NASA via Getty Images) #
The Space Shuttle Endeavour lands in the Mojave Desert at Edwards Air Force Base near Rosamond, California - instead of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida because of deteriorating weather conditions on November 30, 2008. The landing concludes mission STS-126 to the International Space Station November 14 to prepare the space station for long-duration missions. (David McNew/Getty Images) #
A parachute deploys as the space shuttle Endeavour touches down at Edwards Air Force Base, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2008 in California. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill) #
At Edwards Air Force Base in California, photographers and journalists circle STS-126 crew members before their departure for NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston on December 1st, 2008. The crew took time to talk to the media before they left. (NASA/Tony Landis, VAFB) #
Bathed under floodlights as the sun sets, Mike Mangione of United Space Alliance, puts star tracker covers in the nose of the space shuttle Endeavour, inside the Mate-Demate Device, as it is readied to be mounted aboard a NASA 747 for its return trip to Florida, at Edwards Air Force Base, California, Friday, Dec. 5, 2008. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon) #
The space shuttle Endeavour, fresh from the STS-126 mission and mounted atop its modified Boeing 747 carrier aircraft, flies over California's Mojave Desert on a three-day trip back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday Dec. 10, 2008. NASA officials said Wednesday Dec. 17, 2008 that it is looking for ideas on where and how best to display its space shuttles once they stop flying in a few years. Beware: NASA estimates it will cost about $42 million to get each shuttle ready and get it where it needs to go, and the final tab could end up much more. The estimate includes $6 million to ferry the spaceship atop a modified jumbo jet to the closest major airport. (AP Photo/NASA) #
People watch as the space shuttle Endeavour, on top of a modified 747 jet that carried it cross-country from California, prepares to touch down on the runway after returning to Kennedy Space Center December 12, 2008 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) #
The space shuttle Endeavour returns atop a NASA 747 aircraft to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida December 12, 2008. (REUTERS/NASA/Handout) #
The shuttle carrier aircraft, or SCA, and its piggyback passenger space shuttle Endeavour are poised to enter the mate/demate device at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The device will lift the shuttle and put it back on the ground. (NASA/Kim Shiflett) #
After dark, at the Shuttle Landing Facility, or SLF, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, space shuttle Endeavour has been attached to the sling that will lift the shuttle away from the shuttle carrier aircraft, or SCA, underneath. After Endeavour is on the ground, it will be towed via the two-mile tow-way from the SLF by a diesel-powered tractor to the Orbiter Processing Facility where it will begin preparations for its next mission, STS-127, targeted for May 2009. (NASA/Jim Grossmann) #
Before dawn, at the Shuttle Landing Facility, or SLF, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, space shuttle Endeavour is suspended by a sling under the mate/demate device. The shuttle carrier aircraft, or SCA, seen below, has just rolled away. (NASA/Jim Grossmann) #
Space shuttle Endeavour is towed by a diesel-powered tractor into the Orbiter Processing Facility, or OPF, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on December 13th, 2008. In the OPF, Endeavour will begin preparations for its next mission, STS-127, targeted for May 2009. (NASA/Jack Pfaller) #
R.I.P 07/01/09 - 04/23/10 :(
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