Space Shuttle missions from 1981 to 2011, launched from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Operational missions launched numerous satellites, interplanetary probes, and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST); conducted science experiments in orbit; and participated in construction and servicing of the International Space Station. The Shuttle fleet's total mission time was 1322 days, 19 hours, 21 minutes and 23 seconds. Shuttle components included the Orbiter Vehicle (OV) with three clustered Rocketdyne RS-25 main engines, a pair of recoverable solid rocket boosters (SRBs), and the expendable external tank (ET) containing liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The Space Shuttle was launched vertically, like
James Webb Space Telescope commissioning phase. An L2 orbit is only meta-stable so it requires orbital station-keeping or an object will drift away from this orbital configuration. The desire for a large infrared space telescope traces back decades; in the United States the "Shuttle Infrared Telescope Facility" was planned while the Space Shuttle was in development and the potential for infrared astronomy was acknowledged at that time. Compared to ground telescopes, space observatories were free from atmospheric absorption of infrared light; this would be a whole "new sky" for astronomers. However, infrared telescopes have a disadvantagethey need to stay extremely cold and the longer