The Museum of Flight in Seattle welcomes first portion of NASA's Space Shuttle Trainer

This morning, as the space shuttle Discovery made its dramatic arrival in Washington D.C., The Museum of Flight in Seattle unveiled the first sections of NASA's Space Shuttle Trainer, three Engine Bells, which will be permanently housed at the Museum’s Charles Simonyi Space Gallery.

Museum of Flight President and CEO Doug King hosted a brief news conference to announce the arrival and to unpack one of the three Engine Bells, which are approximately nine feet in diameter and roughly 800 pounds each. The Shuttle Trainer is being delivered in several stages in the coming months, with the most recognizable portion – the Crew Compartment – tentatively scheduled for delivery on June 16 aboard NASA’s Super Guppy aircraft.

Workers remove one of the three Engine Bells from the Shuttle Trainer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Each Engine Bell is approximately nine feet in diameter and weighs more than 800 pounds. Photo courtesy of NASA.   

Built in the 1970s, the Shuttle Trainer is the only one of its kind in the world and is the simulator in which every space shuttle astronaut trained for space flight. It will be on display in the 15,500-sq.-ft. Charles Simonyi Space Gallery, where it will be joined by a collection of other rare space artifacts including Simonyi’s Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft and interactive exhibits showcasing space travel from the earliest days of the space shuttle program to the future of commercial space. 

See the Seattle PI's story here. Or check out The Seattle Times' take here.  

Medic One Foundation receives generous donation from James and Sherry Raisbeck

After collapsing in his Seattle home on Jan. 2, James Raisbeck, founder and chairman of Raisbeck Engineering, is lucky to be alive. His wife, Sherry Raisbeck, found him unconscious on the floor when returning home from dinner with friends. She quickly dialed 911. Medics from Fire Station 28 responded immediately and worked on him for a "long, long time before he could even be put on a gurney," Mrs. Raisbeck said.

"Doctors at UW Hospital told me they had never seen a patient who came in that condition be able to (leave the hospital alive)," Sherry Raisbeck said. James had suffered an adverse reaction to a medication and was later diagnosed with acute autoimmune pancreatitis with sudden-onset Type I diabetes.

On Wednesday, April 4, the Raisbecks met with firefights and paramedias at Station 28 to thank them for saving his life and to present a check for $25,000 to Medic One Foundation which funds the Paramedic Training Program.This acclaimed program has become a model for the nation in training paramedics to think like doctors, and runs solely on donations.

“Having my life literally saved by Medic One without question or argument made me realize how important they are to my life and all of our lives,” says James. “We have been minor donors to Medic One Foundation for some time, but now we know more than ever that this is vital. Thank God they were able to bring me back from near death because of their world class training.”
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