CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Two of NASA's ocean-going fleet of ships were seen together this week in the heart of Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39 as the center hosted a VIP visit of NATO Parliamentarians, who were meeting in Orlando but took time to tour America's rocket ranch.

The 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building, where space shuttles are assembled before heading out to the launch pad, dominates this image as it does the skyline of Merritt Island in Central Florida.

In the turn basin at right is the Freedom Star, a solid rocket booster recovery ship owned by NASA and operated by United Space Alliance. The ship has recently returned to KSC after refurbishment at Fort George Island, Fla.

At left is a barge used to transport the shuttle's external tank from its factory in Louisiana, through the Gulf of Mexico, around the Florida peninsula and up the coast to KSC. The barge originally was built to move the first stage of the Saturn 5 Moon rocket along the same path.

Freedom Star and its sistership, Liberty Star, serve double duty not only as booster retrieval platforms, but also to haul the external tank barge along its route.

Credit:NASA