KSC-2012-3500

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Viewed from the aft portion of the space shuttle Atlantis, technicians prepare to install replica shuttle main engine RSME number 2 on the shuttle orbiter in Orbiter Processing Facility Bay 1 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Three RSMEs were installed on Atlantis. The replicas were built in the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne engine shop at KSC to replace the space shuttle main engines SSMEs which will be placed in storage to support NASA's Space Launch System currently under development. The RSME installation is part of the Space Shuttle Program’s transition and retirement processing of the space shuttle fleet. A groundbreaking was held Jan. 18, 2012 for Atlantis’ future home, a 65,000-square-foot exhibit hall in Shuttle Plaza at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Atlantis is scheduled to roll over to the visitor complex during November in preparation for the exhibit’s grand opening in July 2013. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/transition. Photo credit: NASA/Glenn Benson