![]() ![]() The Space Shuttle consists of three major components: the Orbiter which houses the crew a large External Tank that holds fuel for the main engines and two Solid Rocket Boosters which provide most of the Shuttle’s lift during the first two minutes of flight. An early Space Shuttle Orbiter, the Enterprise, never flew in space but was used for approach and landing tests at the Dryden Flight Research Center and several launch pad studies in the late 1970s. Endeavour was built as a replacement following the Challenger accident and was delivered to Florida in May 1991. Discovery was delivered in November 1983. The Orbiter Challenger was delivered to KSC in July 1982 and was destroyed in an explosion during ascent in January 1986. So far, altogether they have flown a combined total of less than one-fourth of that.Ĭolumbia was the first Space Shuttle orbiter to be delivered to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Fla., in March 1979. Columbia and the STS-107 crew were lost Feb. Each of the three Space Shuttle orbiters now in operation-Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour-is designed to fly at least 100 missions. The Shuttle launches like a rocket, maneuvers in Earth orbit like a spacecraft and lands like an airplane. Early next year, the boosters will be mated with NASA's last-remaining, built-for-flight space shuttle external tank (ET-94), which has been parked in Exposition Park since 2016.The Space Shuttle was the world’s first reusable spacecraft, and the first spacecraft in history that can carry large satellites both to and from orbit. They were the first major components to be taken vertical as part of the science center's "Go for Stack" campaign. The SRBs going on exhibit with Endeavour were assembled from all flight-worthy or previous launched parts as donated by Northrop Grumman and NASA. After falling away from the external tank, the frustums were jettisoned and recovered separately. In flight, the forward assemblies held the avionics, forward separation motors and drogue and main parachutes for each booster. 4), followed by the port, or left-side, rocket on Tuesday (Dec. The starboard, or right-side, booster was completed on Monday (Dec. ![]() (Image credit: California Science Center) Workers complete the installation of a forward assembly atop one of the solid rocket boosters for the launchpad-like exhibit of NASA's retired space shuttle Endeavour. Standing atop metal and wood scaffolding, workers then secured the hardware by inserting 195 one-inch-diameter (2.54-centimeter) metal pins. Just one month after crane operators hoisted into place the large segments for the two solid rocket boosters (SRBs), they were back in motion this week topping off the towering rockets with the forward assemblies.Ĭomprised of a nose cap, frustum, ordnance ring and forward skirt, each 27-foot-tall (8.2-meter), 10,000-pound (4,500-kilogram) assembly was raised from the street and lifted more than 100 feet (30.5 meters) into the air before being lowered onto a booster. The work to stand up two rockets for the launchpad-like exhibit of NASA's retired space shuttle Endeavour has been capped - literally and figuratively - with the addition of two nose cones.Īs the California Science Center prepares to take Endeavour off public display for the next few years, the first major components for the orbiter's vertical exhibit are now complete at the construction site for the new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center in Los Angeles. ![]()
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