Space shuttle trainer starts to arrive at Museum of Flight

Museum of Flight President Doug King speaks before unveiling a Full Fuselage Space Shuttle Trainer engine bell in the Charles Simonyi Space Gallery on Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at Seattle's Museum of Flight. The shipment was the first portion of NASA's Full Fuselage Space Shuttle Trainer to arrive at The Museum of Flight. The trainer will be permanently housed in the Space Gallery at the museum. less Museum of Flight President Doug King speaks before unveiling a Full Fuselage Space Shuttle Trainer engine bell in the Charles Simonyi Space Gallery on Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at Seattle's Museum of Flight. The ... more Photo: AUBREY COHEN Photo: AUBREY COHEN Image 1 of / 41 Caption Close Space shuttle trainer starts to arrive at Museum of Flight 1 / 41 Back to Gallery

Soon after the space shuttle Discovery landed in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, on Seattle's Museum of Flight unwrapped the first pieces of NASA's shuttle full-fuselage trainer.

"We think the arrival of Discovery there is very exciting," Museum of Flight President Doug King said in the museum's new Charles Simonyi Space Gallery on Tuesday. "On the other hand, I also thanked them for calling attention to what we're doing today, and that is the first arrival of something we think might even be better than the shuttle."

The trainer is a full-scale mockup of the shuttle, made mostly from plywood, that lived at the Johnson Space Center, in Houston, during the shuttle program. It includes simulated versions of the crew compartment, cargo bay and exterior features, minus the wings.

"It trained every astronaut that flew to space on the shuttle," King said. "It's where they figured out how the missions were going to work, what fit into the payload bay, what didn't, the procedures, the training, the incredible amount of energy and time and effort and thinking it takes to go into space 135 times and accomplish what they did."

The museum built the Space Gallery with a real shuttle in mind but finished fourth in the competition to land the three available: Atlantis, which will go to Kennedy Space Center, in Florida; Endeavour, whose new home will be the California Science Center; and the atmospheric test shuttle Enterprise, headed for New York. The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, in Washington, D.C., had previously been promised Discovery.

How could a plywood trainer be better than a real shuttle?

One big reason is that visitors won't be able to go inside the real shuttles. The Museum of Flight plans to open up the cargo bay to all visitors and the crew compartment to people in special programs.

"When you climb inside that crew compartment, you're inside the shuttle," King said.

He said that access fits the museum's goal of being "the best educational air and space museum in the world" and, with the Space Gallery, telling the story of the last 30 years of space and looking ahead to the coming era of relatively inexpensive private access to low-Earth orbit.

"If you ask most people 'What's the greatest achievement in space?' they'll say landing on the moon, but that was 42 years ago," King said. "What's happened since? What's happened is we've learned to live and work there."

The first pieces of the trainer to arrive, on Monday, were the three main engine bells – which stuck out from the rear of the shuttle, shooting out flames and supersonic exhaust at liftoff. Well, the real ones did. These are made from foam, although they still weigh 800 pounds each.

One of the bells sat wrapped in plastic inside an open crate in the Space Gallery Tuesday. After a short speech, King set about unveiling it, succeeding finally with the help of Chief Curator Dan Hagedorn, Director of Facilities Clark Miller and a ladder.

King read out an email he got Tuesday from Houston saying the trainer's crew compartment was being lifted off its cradle in preparation for shipment to Seattle aboard a NASA Super Guppy aircraft and is scheduled to arrive here at 10 a.m. on June 16.

The cargo bay is set to arrive in two pieces on two subsequent Supper Guppy shipments. The engine bell unveiled Tuesday will remain on display for about a month and, eventually, visitors will be able to watch museum staffers at work reassembling the trainer.

"We want to let people see it come together," King said. The museum hopes to get that work done by Sept. 22.

Some wear was evident on the engine bell Tuesday.

"We may have a little repair work to do," King said.

The museum will restore the trainer to pristine condition, including a new paint job, he said. "After 30 years on the floor in Houston, the white is a little gray."

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