KSC-08pd3766

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At Hangar AF at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, a worker examines one of the frustums from two spent solid rocket boosters from space shuttle Endeavour, which launched Nov. 14 on the STS-126 mission. The frustum was offloaded from the solid rocket booster retrieval ship Freedom Star and moved inside the Hangar AF High Bay for disassembly. The space shuttle’s solid rocket booster casings and associated flight hardware are recovered at sea after being jettisoned. The boosters impact the Atlantic Ocean approximately seven minutes after liftoff. After their recovery and transport to Hangar AF, the boosters are cleaned, inspected, disassembled, refurbished and reloaded with solid propellant for reuse. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann