"At last : a secure ascent/descent mode for the shuttle"By Michel Laliberté in Canada
Thanks to all of the readers who suggested an explanation.
Last week's image shows the Space Shuttle Enterprise being craned into a dynamics test stand at NASA’s George C Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama in 1978. Enterprise was mated with an external propellant tank and two solid rocket boosters, already placed in the stand, to form a complete Shuttle stack. This was the first time all the Shuttle elements were assembled while the space transportation system was undergoing ground testing at MSFC.