KSC-2011-7754

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA's Freedom Star ship nears the Atlantic Ocean as it tows the Pegasus Barge through Port Canaveral in Florida. Freedom Star is towing the 266-foot-long and 50-foot-wide barge to Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss. to deliver space shuttle main engine (SSME) ground support equipment. Since being delivered to NASA in 1999, Pegasus sailed 41 times and transported 31 shuttle external fuel tanks from Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans to Kennedy Space Center. The barge is leaving Kennedy, perhaps for the final time. Both the barge and shuttle equipment will remain in storage until their specific future uses are determined. The SSMEs themselves will be transported to Stennis separately for use with the agency's new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System. The work is part of the Space Shuttle Program’s transition and retirement processing. For more information about Shuttle Transition and Retirement, visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/transition/home/index.html. Photo credit: NASA/Frankie Martin