The Space Shuttle Challenger Accident Investigation

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.

A timelapse video shot inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center chronicles the stacking of the final shuttle mission’s booster, external fuel tank and the addition of the orbiter Atlantis. (Membership Required)

This narrated footage shows the preparations that shuttle Atlantis and the mission payloads underwent at Kennedy Space Center for launch on STS-135 to the International Space Station.