KSC-04pd-2394

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - On the deck of the Freedom Star, one of the Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) retrieval ships, the media learn about retrieval operations. The stop was part of a day-long event that featured the movement of the first SRB segments to the Vehicle Assembly Building for stacking for Return to Flight mission STS-114. Two SRBs support the liftoff of the Space Shuttle on a launch. The twin 149-foot tall, 12-foot diameter SRBs provide the main propulsion system during launch to place the orbiters in the proper orbit around the Earth. They operate parallel with the Space Shuttle main engines for the first two minutes of flight and jettison away from the orbiter, with help from the Booster Separation Motors, about 26.3 nautical miles above the Earth’s surface.