View allAll Photos Tagged SpaceShuttle
April 20, 2012 - Waiting for the trip to NY. As of this evening, Monday's flight is cancel until further notice because of the anticipated rain.
Pima Air and Space Museum
NASA Life Vest Harness
An unissued early Space Shuttle life vest harness designed to be used during shuttle launch. These harnesses were utilized until the Challenger disaster in 1986, after which updated safety precautions required pressure suits to be worn during launch and landing.
Taking a photo, from 11 miles out, at night, isn't easy to do. Even with a 1680mm of effective lens
Check out the flame from the hydrogen burn off.
The Space Shuttle Enterprise does a flyby around NYC landmarks before landing at JFK Airport. It will be put on display at the Intrepid Museum
I have to say, the Velocitron Speedia sub series of Transformers Legacy has me more interested than the main line, even if it is toys I normally would not consider.
Case in point, Galaxy Shuttle - Leader price point, and is a repainted Siege Astrotrain with a different head, a toy that I basically avoided even when it was on clearance... but, I'm a sucker for Japanese characters.
Apparently, I'm very much alone in my enthusiasm, as the price point and lack of popularity for this character (on this side of the world anyway) made this figure the easiest Walmart Exclusive I've ever hunted for - just walked into a random store a week after people started finding it, and it was there... along with the entire case.
Everything you loved (or hated) about Astrotrain is present here, which means the core figure isn't terrible - pretty much what you'd expect for a Voyager sized figure, lacking the ankle articulation that would have been nice to see.
New head sculpt is a pretty good approximation of the Japanese G1 animated counter part, even if the actual body itself isn't even close. On the plus side, he's also Galaxy Shuttle Train as well.
QC is... well it's Hasbro. Being a mainline release, the expectations are that it will hold up to play and will transform, and on those points this release succeeds.
Suck it, Victory Saber.
Where this release falls apart is the same way Astrotrain did - the extra bits added to this set to justify calling it a Leader release... I mean, it forms a coal car or something in train mode, a really lame platform for shuttle mode, and a REALLY lame set of battle armour for robot mode... I mean, a pair of shoes and a crap backpack? REALLY??
At least the figure comes with a ridiculous number of guns, though.
Pima Air and Space Museum
Space Shuttle Challenger Model
The shuttle was designed to launch as a rocket, orbit as a spacecraft, and land as an airplane, It was the first reusable manned spacecraft and was launched by two reusable solid rocket boosters.
The Space Shuttle Challenger was the second orbiter utilized by NASA's Space Shuttle Program. The Challenger's first flight, STS-6, launched on April 4, 1983. During its service, Challenger mission accomplishments include completion of the first spacewalk of the shuttle program, launching the first Tracking and Data Relay System (TDRS) satellite, and carrying the first American woman into space. Challenger completed nine missions before being destroyed on the tenth. On January 28, 1986, 73 seconds into its launch, the shuttle exploded due to faulty solid rocket booster O-rings, killing all seven crew members. The live broadcast of the explosion shocked the nation and halted all NASA launches for two years.
The Pathfinder Shuttle Stack at the U.S Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL, is the only full shuttle stack in the world.
Pathfinder served as a non-flight test vehicle and is currently undergoing restoration.
The Space Shuttle was a partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS), taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft where it was the only item funded for development.
The first of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights beginning in 1982. Five complete Space Shuttle orbiter vehicles were built and flown on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011, launched from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Operational missions launched numerous satellites, interplanetary probes, and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), conducted science experiments in orbit, participated in the Shuttle-Mir program with Russia, and participated in construction and servicing of the International Space Station (ISS).
The Space Shuttle Endevour, piggybacked on a 747. The unusual pair landed at Lackland AFB to fuel up on the way from California back to Florida.
The Pathfinder Shuttle Stack at the U.S Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL, is the only full shuttle stack in the world.
Pathfinder served as a non-flight test vehicle and is currently undergoing restoration.
The Space Shuttle was a partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS), taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft where it was the only item funded for development.
The first of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights beginning in 1982. Five complete Space Shuttle orbiter vehicles were built and flown on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011, launched from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Operational missions launched numerous satellites, interplanetary probes, and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), conducted science experiments in orbit, participated in the Shuttle-Mir program with Russia, and participated in construction and servicing of the International Space Station (ISS).
Pima Air and Space Museum
*New pics as more screens have been lit
SPACE SHUTTLE PROGRAM FIXED BASE GUIDANCE AND NAVIGATION SIMULATOR
One of only three advanced space shuttle orbiter simulators used to train NASA astronauts.
The fixed-base Guidance and Navigation Simulator (GNS) represents one of only three simulators once used to train astronauts for the Space Shuttle Program at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Along with the motion-base Shuttle Mission Simulator (SMS) and the Fixed-Base Simulator (FBS), these complex machines were used to create a series of various mission tasks ranging from full mission rehearsals down to recreating specific exercises such as atmosphere entry or launching satellites.
Predating the SMS and FBS, the GNS was built in the late 1970s and operational by 1982. Initially it was primarily used only to test and verify guidance and navigation software that would later be installed in the SMS, FBS, and orbiters. As such it originally did not have visual computer-generated windscreen displays and much of the interior was unfinished, though it did contain the same complex array of cockpit instrumentation, controls, and computer displays operated by five distinct general-purpose computers (GPC) present in actual orbiters.
Following the Challenger accident investigation, the Rogers Commission suggested that NASA invest in additional crew training simulators to provide increased and expanded training and to handle the higher frequency of missions. However, the cost of providing an additional SMS or FBS proved too expensive, so NASA elected to upgrade the GNS into a full fixed-base crew simulator that was essentially identical to the FBS.
The upgraded GNS flight deck was enhanced to provide a more realistic appearance and a full visual computer-generated imagery system for the six forward facing windscreens. Computer-generated imagery (CGI) was a new science in the early 1980s and all the simulators used a first-generation CGI system, rudimentary by today's standards.
For 20 years the upgraded GNS was used interchangeably with the FBS and it is likely that every post-Challenger crew spent time in the GNS practicing launch, ascent, orbit, re-entry, and landing procedures.
With the end of the Space Shuttle Program, the GNS was retired in 2011. In late 2020 the GNS was used on the set of a science fiction movie due to be released in late 2021 [not sure why they’re being cryptic, its Roland Emmerich’s Moonfall]. The filmmakers modified the simulator's external appearance, making the GNS more closely resemble the outer surface of an actual orbiter, along with internal cabin modifications. Following movie shooting, the GNS flight deck was donated to the Pima Air & Space Museum in early 2021.
Dr. Mae Jemison's first flight, she was the first African American woman in space. Along with Mamoru Mohri, Japan's first astronaut (JAXA). I think this was the second most diverse crew.
Truly, I loved all these plaques.
See more:
www.launchphotography.com/STS-134.html
On its 25th and final flight, Endeavour launches to the International Space Station with the $2 billion dollar particle physics experiment known as the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), built by the European Space Agency. The AMS will detect and measure cosmic rays and search the universe for increasing evidence of dark matter and antimatter.