Softpedia >News >Science >Space
Softpedia Homepage   

NASA to Part Ways with Its Shuttles Soon

The first one will be delivered to a museum next month

Mar 14, 2012 12:10 GMT  ·  By
Two shuttles will be delivered at their respective museums in mid-April
   Two shuttles will be delivered at their respective museums in mid-April

The space shuttle Discovery and the prototype Enterprise are ready to be moved to their respective final destinations next month, officials at NASA announced. The other two orbiters, Atlantis and Endeavour, are still undergoing transport preparations.

Discovery is now parked inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), in Florida. It will remain in the cavernous, 52-story building until mid-April, when it is mated with the last operating Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA).

The latter is a heavily modified Boeing 747, which is used to transport the shuttles to various locations around the country. While the orbiter program was still active, the two SCA in active duty at the time where used to transport the vehicles back to Florida if they landed in California.

Now, the SCA will transport the shuttles one last time. Discovery will be the first to be transported, from the KSC to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, near Washington DC. This is also where it will be mated with Enterprise.

The prototype shuttle – which never actually flew to space – will be taken to New York, where it will be exhibited at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. The latter is located on a decommissioned aircraft carrier berthed at a pier in Manhattan.

Enterprise will fly for the last time on April 23. After this time, NASA will focus its attention on the remaining two shuttles. Atlantis is currently in the KSC Orbiter Processing Facility 1 (OPF-1), occupying the slot recently freed by Discovery, Space reports.

The orbiter is scheduled to be displayed at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex starting in early 2013. The facilities that will house the iconic spacecraft are currently being put together, and engineers expect the construction to be completed on time.

Endeavour is now located in OPF-2, where it is being readied for its mid-September trip to the California Science Center, in Los Angeles. It will be flown to the West Coast atop the SCA as well.

Preparing an orbiter for exhibit in a museum is no easy task. There are numerous hazardous chemicals and components that need to be removed beforehand, in order to ensure that the spacecraft does not release any type of toxic fumes in confined environments.