Categories: Space FlightSpace Shuttle

How Does the Shuttle Orbiter Get Attached to the External Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters?

Ever wondered how the space shuttle orbiter gets attached to the big external tank and the solid rocket boosters? This video shows the process — called “Lift and Mate” — where the shuttle Endeavour was put into a special harness, lifted high above the stacked ET and SRBs inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, and lowered into place. The orbiter is then bolted to the ET and SRBs. Endeavour’s Lift and Mate for its final flight took place on March 1, 2011. You can also see extremely high resolution, pan and zoom images of Endeavour lifted high in the VAB at the NASATech website. (High bandwidth warning! — but definitely worth it.) See the NASATech main page for the full variety of images.

Endeavour is scheduled to rollout to Launch Pad 39A next week for STS-134, with launch set for April 19. Even though this could be the final flight of the shuttle program (STS-135 is still not a certainty) many people are looking forward to this flight, as it will bring the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the ISS. AMS is a particle physics detector designed to search for various types of unusual matter by measuring cosmic rays.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond. Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/