The Museum of Flight is putting the finishing touches on the Space Shuttle Trainer exhibit in the Charles Simonyi Space Gallery. The Grand Opening is on November 10th at 11 a.m. Here are some photos we took today watching the preparations!
Photo courtesty of Joshua Trujillo of the Seattle PI. More photos can be seen here
For the third time in just over a month and
potentially the last time ever, NASA’s Super Guppy could be spotted high above
the Seattle skyline as it delivered the final portion of the Space Shuttle
Trainer to Seattle’s Museum of Flight on Thursday morning.
Following a low fly-over that buzzed the heads of
hundreds of spectators, NASA’s Super Guppy landed at Boeing Field at 10 a.m.
with the forward portion of the payload bay on board. It taxied past The Museum
of Flight to Boeing’s Military Flight Center, where the payload bay was moved
from the Super Guppy onto an Air Force “Tunner 60K” loader and slowly transported
across East Marginal Way to the Museum’s Charles Simonyi Space Gallery. This
could be the Super Guppy’s final flight to the region as many experts believe
the plane will be retired within the next several years.
“The third and final Super Guppy delivery marks the
end of a complex and hectic process that would not have been possible without
the tremendous support from NASA, our members and the people of this great
region,” said Museum of Flight President and CEO Doug King. “As one chapter
comes to end, another begins, which will see the completion of the Space
Shuttle Trainer exhibit and the grand re-opening of the Charles Simonyi Space
Gallery.”
Built in the 1970s,
the Shuttle Trainer is the only one of its kind in the world and is the
simulator in which each of the 335 space shuttle astronauts trained. It will be
on display in the 15,500-square foot Charles Simonyi Space
Gallery, where it joins 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 flight. The payload bay portion of the shuttle trainer is 61 feet
long, 19 feet wide and 23.5 feet high.
There has been a lot of great coverage on the third portion of the Space Shuttle Trainer delivery aboard the Super Guppy to the Museum of Flight. Here are a few of the stories posted today:
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden revealed at a House committee hearing last week that a decision regarding placement for the retiring space shuttle orbiters will be announced Tuesday, April 12. The Museum of Flight in Seattle is one of 27 institutions that are vying for one of the retiring orbiters and its new 15,500-sq.-ft. space gallery – potentially the home of an orbiter – will be completed in July 2011.
The April 12 date is significant in that it marks the 30th anniversary of the first space shuttle launch and the 50th anniversary of the first human in space, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
“We believe that our mission to be the foremost educational air and space museum in the country, along with Washington state’s extensive contributions to aerospace innovation, make us uniquely qualified to be the final home for one of the shuttles,” said Museum of Flight President and CEO Douglas King. “We are eager to hear NASA’s decision.”
The Seattle Times wrote a story about The Museum of Flight's new Space Gallery project. If museum supporters are successful, this $12 million gallery project will eventually house one of America's four retiring space shuttles.
