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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - At the Shuttle Landing Facility, STS-121 Pilot Mark Kelly gets ready for a training flight in a Shuttle Training Aircraft (STA). He will be practicing landing the orbiter using the STA, which is a modified Grumman American Aviation-built Gulf Stream II jet that was modified to simulate an orbiter’s cockpit, motion and visual cues, and handling qualities. In flight, the STA duplicates the orbiter’s atmospheric descent trajectory from approximately 35,000 feet altitude to landing on a runway. Because the orbiter is unpowered during re-entry and landing, its high-speed glide must be perfectly executed the first time. Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to launch July 1 on mission STS-121. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett