Kennedy Space Center

Atlantis' final rollover from the VAB to its waiting museum space at the KSCVC

Florida Trip Oct 2016, visiting NASA, Universal Islands of Adventure, Sebastian Inlet

Science Museum of Virginia

When a spacecraft re-enters the Earth's atmosphere from space, friction is generated between the surface of the craft and the atmosphere's air molecules. This results in heat. To protect the Space Shuttle, approximately 33,000 white and black tiles, made of silica fiber compound, cover its undersurface, the leading edge of the vertical tail, and the area around the crew windows. These protective tiles allow the Space Shuttle to be flown again and again.

Space Shuttle Launch

@ Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. My pics, taken Dec. 3, 2015

guess the spaceshuttle

The arc of windows at the roof of the hangar gives the impression of watching the sun rise over the curvature of the Earth. Clever positioning.

Space Shuttle Launch

The Enterprise in her new home aboard the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. The exhibit opens July 19.

space shuttle solid fuel rocket booster

intrepid.emuseum.com/objects/1608/enterprise-ov101-midbod...

Shuttle Enterprise structural assembly operations at Rockwell Downey in the Mated Manufacturing Aid (Iron Bird) - April 1975.

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Space Shuttle Enterprise, on its way to the Paris Air Show. 19-20 MAY 1983.

After a late night staying up watching NASA TV, we headed down to Canova Beach just before the 2:28 AM launch.

Unfortunately, due to a low overcast, the STS-123 launch was only visible for a scant few (but spectacular) seconds.

Still, an amazing experience.

Space Shuttle Enterprise, on its way to the Paris Air Show. 19-20 MAY 1983.

@ Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. My pics, taken Dec. 3, 2015

We drove right by one of the space shuttle crawler transports. They're huge!

Space Shuttle Enterprise, on its way to the Paris Air Show. 19-20 MAY 1983.

@ Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. My pics, taken Dec. 3, 2015

Space Shuttle Enterprise, on its way to the Paris Air Show. 19-20 MAY 1983.

I am automatically taking a picture of Enterprise's move to the Intrepid. Please continue to check my photostream for new images. A new image uploads every minute!

It gripped objects with protruding knobs by contracting the three wires.

Space Shuttle Enterprise, on its way to the Paris Air Show. 19-20 MAY 1983.

Kennedy Space Center

Atlantis' final rollover from the VAB to its waiting museum space at the KSCVC

Here's the crawler that transports the space shuttle and its mobile launch platform to the launch pad. It drives at about a 1/2 mile per hour and gets something like 40 gallons per mile. That's right - gallons per mile! As the tour bus driver said "hug your SUV".

Pima Air and Space Museum

(exhibit under construction)

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.

Taken by a cousin of a friend.

Kennedy Space Center

Atlantis' final rollover from the VAB to its waiting museum space at the KSCVC

Space Shuttle Enterprise, on its way to the Paris Air Show. 19-20 MAY 1983.

Taken from my front porch.

I am automatically taking a picture of Enterprise's move to the Intrepid. Please continue to check my photostream for new images. A new image uploads every minute!

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Space Shuttle Piggyback Flyover Sunnyvale

Space Shuttle Enterprise, on its way to the Paris Air Show. 19-20 MAY 1983.