Operations are under way to remove the fuel line that supplied liquid hydrogen propellant to space shuttle Atlantis main engine No. 2.

In Orbiter Processing Facility-1 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, operations are under way to remove the fuel line that supplied liquid hydrogen propellant to space shuttle Atlantis’ main engine No. 2.

The liquid hydrogen lines will be placed in storage to preserve the option to reuse them on NASA’s Space Launch System heavy-lift vehicle, under development. The work is part of the Space Shuttle Program’s transition and retirement processing of shuttle Atlantis. A groundbreaking was held Jan. 18 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 in November in preparation for the exhibit’s grand opening in July 2013. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle. Photo credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky