Space Shuttle Enterprise for Exhibit in NYC’s Intrepid Museum on July 19

A four day ‘Space fest’ beginning on July 19 for the opening at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City for the exhibit of the Space Shuttle Enterprise. The event will offer 40 interactive displays, activities and other Space-related exhibitions. Visitors will be able to view the original prototype orbiter from all angle including from above and below.

Inside the pavilion, museum-goers will discover the Space Shuttle Enterprise displayed 10 feet or 3 meters above the deck floor – allowing visitors to walk directly underneath the shuttle. And if guests prefer a different view, they can ascent to a viewing platform positioned near Enterprise’s nose to get an up-close overhead look at the iconic spacecraft. Dramatic lighting and a series of back lit images and video stations will highlight Enterprise inside its display as”A vehicle that continues to enable a greater understanding of science and technology.”

The Space Shuttle Enterprise flew in an atmospheric approach and landing tests in the late 1970s to prove the pathway home for its sister space-worthy shuttles, that will also make its debut inside the Intrepid’s new “Space Shuttle Pavilion” also on the same date of event, July 19, 2012, Thursday.

“The exhibition brings to life the remarkable story of the Enterprise as the original prototype space shuttle orbiter in relation to NASA’s historic role in experimental aircraft throughout the twentieth-century,” according to a Press Release by the Intrepid. “The experience will inspire visitors of all ages, offering an unforgettable look at the past, present and future of space missions.”

The four day “Space fest” is sponsored by Samsung will kick off on July 18, the night before the Space Shuttle Pavilion opens to the public with a free concert on the Intrepid’s flight deck. The music will feature cutting edge, eclectic and curatorial concerts and DJ sets and will be based on the EDM and indie rock global scenes. The next day, the exhibit will began with a ribbon cutting around 11a.m. with a group of shuttle astronauts including several native New Yorkers including Ellen Baker, Mario Runco, Charles Camarda and Mike Massimino.

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com

Space Shuttle Fleet to retire in museums

The shuttle Atlantis returned to Earth for the final time today (July 21), but the orbiter has one more mission left on its docket — teaching and inspiring the public as a museum showpiece.

Atlantis landed at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center at 5:57 a.m. EDT (0957 GMT), officially ending NASA’s iconic shuttle program after 30 years of operation.

But Atlantis and the other surviving orbiters — Discovery, Endeavour and the prototype Enterprise used in landing tests — won’t fade into obscurity. Rather, they’ll occupy pride of place at museums around the country, serving as ambassadors for the shuttle program for years to come.

“We’re going to put Atlantis in a museum now, along with the other three orbiters, for the generations that come after us to admire and appreciate,” Atlantis commander Chris Ferguson said from the shuttle runway just after landing the orbiter. “I want that picture of a young 6-year-old boy looking up at a space shuttle in a museum and saying, ‘Daddy, I want to do something like that when I grow up,’ or ‘I want our country to do fantastic things like this for the continued future.’”

Atlantis, in particular, is NASA’s pride and joy. Unlike the other orbiters, which are bound for museums across the country, Atlantis will stay in Florida to be displayed at the nearby Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

“I think people will come here and finally appreciate the sort of underappreciated shuttle program,” said Bill Moore, chief operating officer of the Visitor Complex. “The shuttles did such a great job that spaceflight became relatively routine.”

Atlantis won’t roll off the runway and head immediately over to the Visitor Complex. It will undergo a months-long decommissioning and safing process, during which NASA technicians will remove some pieces for research purposes and others for safety reasons.

They’ll hold onto the orbiter’s main engines permanently, for example. And they’ll scrub away all traces of rocket fuel from the thruster system inside Atlantis’ nose before handing the shuttle over.

This process should be done by late 2012 or early 2013, Moore said. The Visitor Complex hopes to have Atlantis on display by July 2013 — perhaps two years to the day after its final launch, which took place July 8.

“I think it would be great to open on July 4, or July 8,” Moore told SPACE.com. “Do we open on the anniversary of its last flight? Do we open on America’s birthday? I don’t know. We’ll figure it out.”

-news.yahoo.com

-nasa.gov

 

July 21 marks the completion of the 13-day flight of the Atlantis Spacecraft as it lands at dawn at Cape Canaveral. In commemoration of this mighty endeavor by NASA, Warplanes.com is bringing all Spacecraft Models on SALE!

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NASA Discovery Shuttle Ready for final flight

Countdown to the final mission for the US space shuttle Discovery has begun, with NASA confident that fuel tank cracks are fixed and the shuttle is ready for its 39th and last launch on Thursday, Feb. 24.

The aging shuttle is “in good shape,” NASA test director Jeff Spaulding said last Monday, Feb. 21, and the weather forecast was 80 percent favorable for pleasant conditions at launch time, 4:50 pm (2150 GMT).

NASA experts have repeatedly voiced confidence in repairs that shored up the brackets on the external fuel tank, after cracks emerged upon fueling just ahead of the planned November launch, postponing the mission until now.

Another mishap befell the mission in January, when astronaut Tim Kopra was injured in a bicycle accident. He has been replaced by another veteran astronaut, Steve Bowen.

This mission is due to last 11 days and the six-member crew will deliver and install a new module to the International Space Station.

The Permanent Multipurpose Module will provide room for extra storage and space for experiments.

Discovery will also bring Robonaut 2, “the first dexterous humanoid robot in space,” said NASA.

Astronauts will first test how it works in microgravity before figuring out how upgrades could graduate the robot to a full-fledged space assistant.

Discovery, which first flew in 1984, will be the first shuttle to enter retirement when it concludes this mission. The other two remaining in the fleet, Atlantis and Endeavour, are slated for their final flights later this year.

The shuttle has been a “workhorse, ambassador, scientist and equal opportunity emissary,” NASA said on its website, noting that Discovery has flown more missions than any other spacecraft and made 5,600 trips around the Earth.

Discovery was the first shuttle to be piloted by a woman in 1995 and carried the first female shuttle commander into space in 1999 — both times the same pioneer, Eileen Collins.

Other historic firsts to come aboard Discovery were the first African American spacewalker, Bernard Harris in 1995, and the first sitting member of Congress to fly in space, Senator Jake Garn in 1985.

In addition to the 180 people Discovery will have carried into space by the end of this mission, the shuttle sent the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit and launched the Ulysses robotic probe on its journey toward the Sun.

Discovery was also the first “to rendezvous with the Russian Mir Space Station, and it delivered the Japanese Kibo laboratory to the International Space Station,” NASA noted.

The three remaining US shuttles are due to become museum pieces once the final shuttle mission takes place, leaving the Russian space program’s Soyuz capsule as the sole method to bring astronauts to and from the ISS.

Endeavour is set for takeoff on April 19 and Atlantis is scheduled for June 28, though funding for Atlantis remains in question.

There were initially five space shuttles in the fleet — Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff in 1986 and Columbia disintegrated on its way back to Earth in 2003.

The sixth shuttle, Enterprise, did test flights in the atmosphere but was never flown into space. It is already on display at a museum outside Washington.

Earlier this year, the US company SpaceX succeeded in sending its Dragon space capsule into orbit and back, but it will likely be several years before a private US spaceflight can carry crew and cargo to the ISS.

- asdnews.com

-wikipedia.org