An umbilical tower also usually includes an elevator which allows maintenance and crew access. You can follow senior writer Clara Moskowitz on Twitter ClaraMoskowitz. Space Shuttle Discovery is carried by a Crawler-transporter, a launch tower is visible in the background A service structure is a steel framework or tower that is built on a rocket launch pad to facilitate assembly and servicing. "The entire system is completely cleaned out so there's not even a modicum of toxic chemicals left, so 20 years from now, someone standing under a shuttle doesn't get dripped on," Beutel said. Once they are safe, they'll be shipped back and reinstalled on the orbiters before they are sent to museums. Those systems have been removed and sent to the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico for intensive cleaning.
New York's Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum will also get a shuttle, the test vehicle Enterprise (currently housed at the Smithsonian), which never made it to space.īefore Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis can be put on display, they must be processed to remove all hazardous parts and materials, especially any residual rocket fuel lingering in the Forward Reaction Control System and the Orbital Maneuvering Systems Engines. NASA named the three recipients of the flown shuttles earlier this year, crushing the hopes of about 20 other museums that had lobbied to host an orbiter. Sometime next summer Endeavour will travel across the country atop a special Boeing 747 jet to the California Science Center in Los Angeles, where it will live out its days. Atlantis is due to travel almost seven miles to the Visitors Center in early 2013.įor the time being, Endeavour will rest dormant inside the VAB, which was where NASA stacked orbiters with their external tanks and solid rocket boosters in preparation for launch. Work is also ongoing inside the nearby Orbiter Processing Facility-2, where Atlantis is being prepped for its retirement home at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Center, down the road.Ītlantis was the last shuttle to fly it landed July 21, finishing the 135th and final mission of the 30-year space shuttle program. Thursday's double-shuttle move will allow technicians to work on Discovery inside the OPF-1 in preparation for shipping it to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center outside Washington, D.C., around April 2012. All rights reserved.At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, space shuttles Discovery and Endeavour part company outside Orbiter Processing Facility-3 (OPF-3) where they paused for a unique "nose-to-nose" photo opportunity. See space shuttle Discovery’s payload bay doors close in ’s Photo Gallery.įollow collectSPACE on Facebook and Twitter collectSPACE and editor Robert Pearlman robertpearlman. Enterprise in turn will be flown to New York City, where it is to go on exhibit at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. McDonnell Space Hangar as its centerpiece attraction.ĭiscovery will replace the prototype shuttle Enterprise, which the Udvar-Hazy has displayed since 2003. There it will be unloaded by cranes and rolled into the Udvar-Hazy's James S. Ferried atop NASA's modified Boeing 747 carrier aircraft, the shuttle will be flown to Dulles Airport in Virginia. As with the fuel cells, the Smithsonian requested NASA keep Discovery as complete as possible so as to serve as a resource for future study.ĭiscovery is targeted to make one last flight in April 2012, though not under its own power and well within the atmosphere. Inside its crew cabin, Discovery's waste collection system - otherwise known as its toilet - was removed, cleaned, and replaced, and its flight deck configured to appear ready for another mission, one that will never come. Its engines have been removed and replaced with replicas and its thrusters cleaned of their hazardous materials.
Since landing back on Earth after its 39th and final mission in March, Discovery has been carefully taken apart to preserve some of its components for future use while making the vehicle safe for public display.
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