In my last post, I wrote about the day I watched a rocket launch at NASA Kennedy Space Center. As it happened, this was also the day that Space Shuttle Atlantis, the final Shuttle in the Shuttle-program, was moved out of Kennedy Space Center and sent to the Visitor’s Complex to feature in their space museum. In other words, it was the last chance to see any of the Shuttles outside an American museum.
Me standing behind Space Shuttle Atlantis as it is moved out of Kennedy Space Center for the last time
The two last Space Shuttles to fly, Endeavour (May 2011) and Atlantis (June 2011), were both been kept inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy when we arrived. Here they were being prepared one last time before being sent to different museums, allowing us to have a final close-up look inside and outside.
Space Shuttle Atlantis inside the VAB, the fifth largest building in the world by volume
A view from the Shuttle door and up towards the ceiling.
The VAB is not like any other building you’ve seen. Despite the building being 160 meters tall, it has no floors and is instead only one giant room. Indeed, it is so huge that clouds have sometimes formed indoors underneath the ceiling, resulting in rain pouring down on the spacecraft and employees. While standing inside I could not help but feel small. I can only imagine what it would be like when the 110-meter-tall Saturn V rocket was standing inside, whilst engineers were working at different levels of the rocket.
A little sneak-peek of the cockpit inside Space Shuttle Endeavour
As awesome of a day that it was for me, it was very special for the seniors working at Kennedy Space Center. For decades, the Shuttle program had been occupying most of their time and energy. With the first test launches in 1981, the Shuttle program had then lasted for 30 years until its cancellation in November 2011. You can imagine how many Kennedy-employees had worked on hardly anything else for most of their adult careers, making it very special to watch it come to an end. Following the cancellation of the Shuttle-program, Kennedy was forced to lay off a high number of engineers and the United States was then, for the first time since the Apollo era, left without the ability to send astronauts to orbit using American launch vehicles. In other words, it was a significant day for American space history.
Space Shuttle Atlantis as it's being tugged away
Later on, the Space Shuttle Endeavour was then flown away on top of an airplane. I remember watching the video, which is quite a unique thing to witness when you know that the Shuttle weighs around 75 000kg (165 000 pounds). I remember first thinking “there goes a piece of space-history”, before joking to my friends later on that I now call BS on airlines charging over-weight fees for heavy luggage. If it can carry the Shuttle, then it can carry my extra clothes too!
Space Shuttle Endeavour on top of a modified Boeing 747-100
Today, the Shuttles are scattered across the United States. For those of you interested in seeing them, you can find Shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, Shuttle Discovery at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia, Shuttle Endeavour at California Science Center, and Shuttle Enterprise at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York. Below you can see Space Shuttle Atlantis, the one from most of my pictures, displayed at the Visitor's Complex.
Space Shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Complex.
source
Needless to say, it was an extraordinary day. First witnessing a rocket launch from a VIP terrace at the Space Center, and then getting to see the Shuttles up close on such a historic day. Tomorrow I will take you inside the NASA Kennedy Space Center’s mission control room, including the preserved room used during the Apollo era! So stay tuned ;)
good post
Really cool post and how amazing to be able to se this close up 😃 must have been a good experience.
Really powerful mashine the raket.
Thank you for sharing this post it was very interesting reading.
Have a great day. Upvoted and Resteemed
Thanks a lot @saffisara !
Really appreciate your comments and engagement:) It sure was an amazing day! And a great set of memories to have with me:)
I hope you'll have a great day too!
You are welcome 😊 It was a really interesting reading. Can emagine many great memories from that day. So cool to see the pictures.
Have a great day.
When I visited the Shuttle Discovery for the first time, I was taken aback at just how large it is. I was amazed because watching them on TV for years made them seem so small, especially against the sky during launches. I'm sure it was great getting to see the shuttles before they were carried away. The 747s they transported them on have also always been a marvel of engineering to me. Thanks for sharing, I really enjoyed the photos!
Indeed. To think that this beast could be launched into orbit too is really impressive.
Seeing them up close inside the Kennedy facilities was especially cool, knowing it was the end of a chapter in human history.
Very glad that you liked the post! Appreciate having you here :)
I'll have to try to visit the other shuttles some day. I'll be on the lookout for more fun posts from you. Looks like you have a great job!
Great work on this post. I like the views of the shuttle and the facts mentioned in the post. I never thought of buildings big enough that clouds from in them, thats pretty cool.
Thanks a lot! I'm happy you read it and liked it :)
Yeah, I remember being blown away by it as well. but then again, I remember walking alongside the top of the Fjords back home in Norway. There I experienced seeing think clouds inside the fjords beneath my feet. So I knew that they could form at a few hundred meters from ground level. So not that surprising when you think about it.
wow I can only imagine what an awesome experience this must've been. Really nice pics too. Thanks for sharing.
It was pretty damn awesome!
Knowing just how many times those had gone to space and back. Marvellous technology, just too bad they were so bloody expensive to run :/
Very interesting... and cool that you got to see this, up close and personal! This is such an interesting part of humanity's recent history-- appreciate the share!
Totally agree. Glad you liked it :)
Thanks for the great post. I am happy you were able to experience this.
I do not work for NASA but growing up 10 minutes from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, and later working in fields/companies closely related, the space program has always been a part of my life. I was fortunate enough to participate in a non-public, behind scenes directors tour of the Johnson Space Center a few years before the shuttle program ended. It was an amazing experience.
Finally, on the day of Endeavor's final flight from Florida to California, they made a low altitude fly-by in Houston to honor the city's role in the space program. I was fortunate enough to witness that event. Here is the Endeavor as it flies over Intercontinental Airport in Houston.
That's awesome man! It must be amazing to see the space shuttles that close
You have too much fun to call this "work". How about you create a "My day at work" post?^^
I already did that here!. But also, this was from when I went to the International Space University. So it was during a space studies program and not while at work :p
Then we need a follow up post haha
What an amazing experience!
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good technology in space
The Space shuttles were amazing machines! I was sad to see them retire. Hopefully soon we will be launching manned missions from here again.
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Hi what a great post thank you for showing us around, as a astronaut I appreciate it
It still aggravates me that JSC didn't get a real shuttle. Talk about a slap to the face! Houston, we've got a problem!
An absolute disgrace to NASA to retire them without a viable replacement, leaving us at the mercy of foreign governments to get supplies and personnel to and back from the ISS. Trillions of dollars to fight needless wars and they cut NASA's budget at the drop of a hat!
A sad commentary on society if you ask me!
upvoted
Most excellent! I grew up with these things as they made news. The successes and the utter tragedies. The ones that are left over are really showing their age by all of the ware and tear.
Great experience ! Not many have the chance to experience this.
Amazing. One day I'll get to see one of these marvels up close and personal. Until then I'll have to settle for getting a tattoo of one. (in the process of designing one, trick is getting it to look more like an amazing feat of engineering and less like a dick)
Great post you must feel very privileged indeed to have witnessed such an amazing event.Very interesting post cant wait for the next one,thanks for sharing.
I enjoyed this one immensely, "Carl." I had a toy space shuttle from a trip to Cape Canaveral when I was a kid.
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STOPLove the way you tell the story from your thoughts, to the impressive infrastructures going through the engineers feelings and making personal jokes. I need to improve my storytelling skills :P
Shuttle was a very impressive system, but expensive and not so reusable, but it was fitting into our dreamy vision of planes to the space.
Apparently, astronauts used to say that going up in a russian soyuz and coming back in a shuttle was the safest way to orbit: security systems for soyuz start working since before launch and make escape very easy. In the other way, while the shuttle glides with forces about 1.6-3Gs, the soyuz reentry is typically 4.5, but can be worse.
Anyway, it looks like the shuttle project is a relic from the cold war era, a demonstration of the capability to launch systems that can land in the same place in less than 1 orbit. That is why the soviet had a copycat project, the Buran.
But with most national agencies testing reentry systems now... maybe we will see new shuttle generations soon