Roughly thirty minutes west of Saint Augustine and I-95 in Florida, a Space Shuttle relic sits abandoned in Green Cove Springs near a dock on the Saint Johns River.
Unless you work with the launch vehicles at the Cape directly, getting up close and personal with them really doesn’t happen often. I got lucky and was given a chance (with several other people) to visit the Space Shuttle Orbiter Processing Facility while Atlantis was there, courtesy of the NASA Public Affairs Office. That was in 2012 — ten years ago — and it was one of my favorite
Atlantis is in the Kennedy Space Center’s Visitor Center, where it is a centerpiece of the many artifacts that are available for viewing. The first Orion capsule is there, as is SpaceX’s first Dragon capsule that went to the International Space Station, among many other articles.
One of the many great things to do on a visit to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center is to take a close look at some of the artifacts on display. Atlantis herself, of course, is a star attraction, but there are a lot of other things that are not as flashy as an entire Space Shuttle Orbiter but are incredibly interesting in their own right: for example, one of Atlantis’s hatches.
Note that the instructions are both right-side-up and upside down. After all, in orbit, there really is no “up” or “down” and that in mind, the instructions were to be easily read in any orientation.
Other things is the “Unlocked” indicator on the handle. This is a door that’s not made to be casually opened, and the bright red indicator makes it clear that’s possible in its current configuration.
Finally, the hatch locking mechanisms are lightweight, yet incredibly strong and durable.
All in all, this is a fine piece of engineering that one might overlook if they don’t take the time to give it a good look.
Ever wondered what the inside of NASA’s Transporter Crawler looks like?
In 2014, I was part of a NASA Social event, and as part of the “insider” tour we got to go inside and look around in the Crawler that was used for Apollo and the Space Shuttle, and is now used for Artemis.
In the late spring of 1982 shortly after the American shuttle had started flying missions, word reached the west that the Soviet Union had launched their own space shuttle. As was customary at the time, the Soviets gave little to no information on what the spacecraft was, and that left the western press to make their best guess.
The widely respected Aviation and Space Technology magazine released this rendering, which made its way to various periodicals.
Obviously, Buran was very different.
You must be logged in to post a comment.