Timelapse video: The final space shuttle assembled for flight

Former astronaut Bruce McCandless II, a retired Navy captain and son of a Medal of Honor winner who joined NASA during the buildup to the Apollo program, served as capsule communicator when Neil Armstrong took his historic first step on the moon and later flew in space twice during the shuttle program, died Thursday. He was 80.

The last space shuttle external tank in existence, headed from the New Orleans manufacturing plant to the California Science Center for the vertical launch pad display of the retired orbiter Endeavour, has passed through the Panama Canal.

A Lockheed Martin Atlas 2AS rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 36B at Cape Canaveral on May 19, 2004, carrying the AMC-11 high-definition TV broadcasting satellite. It was the penultimate mission for the Atlas 2AS, which was fitted with four strap-on solid rocket boosters.