Space Shuttle Explorer

Explorer
Mock Space Shuttle Explorer at Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

Space Shuttle Explorer is a full-scale, high-fidelity replica of the Space Shuttle. It was built in Apopka, Florida by Guard-Lee and installed at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in 1993. It was built using schematics, blueprints and archival documents provided by NASA and by shuttle contractors such as Rockwell International. While many of the features on the replica are simulated, some of the model's core parts, including the Michelin tires used on the landing gear, are authentic to the Space Shuttle Program. The model's length is 122.7 feet, its height is 54 feet, and its wingspan is 78 feet.

Display at KSC

Explorer was displayed alongside a gantry-style tower (which included an elevator for accessibility) and visitors could view a mock-up payload, a mannequin wearing an early model of the orange launch/entry pressure suit worn by shuttle astronauts, and a mock-up cockpit with controls and instruments. There was a replica external tank mated to two solid rocket boosters adjacent to Explorer as well.

Explorer was mounted atop cement pilings and secured with steel cabling. Aside from entry through the mock-gantry, no other points of entry were available.

Details

Internal details of the mock-up are not remarkably accurate, though the size and scope of the payload bay is correct.

Externally, the mock-up features simulated thermal protection system tiles (bearing numbers, as the genuine flight articles used to), paneling that looks like reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) panels on the leading edges of the wings, and actual Michelin tires on the landing gear which were flown in space. Handling points are also shown, but the external detailing does not extend to the inclusion of thermal blankets.

Move to Houston

Space Shuttle Explorer was removed from KSC Visitor Center December 11, 2011 by Beyel Bros and moved on a 144 wheel trailer by truck to the VAB Turning Basin dock at the VAB adjacent to the Launch Complex 39 Press Site to be loaded onto a barge bound for Johnson Space Center's Space Center Houston tourism facility in spring 2012. Once there, the inaccurate interior will be refurbished to accurate museum quality and put on display.

The original moving plans were to remove the wings for transportation, however NASA and Delaware North Resorts & Hospitality, which manages operations of the Visitor Center, along with NASA, feared images of a space shuttle with no wings could become iconic of the Shuttle program's ending and ignite the public, undermining NASA's work to bring the Orion/SLS system into people's minds forgetting the shuttle. Thus, to accommodate the move, several light poles along FL SR3 and SR405 were taken down and the shuttle itself was lifted by hydraulic jacks over the guard building on State Road 3. Delaware North was responsible for all moving costs.

The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex will construct a new building to display the retired shuttle Atlantis.

Gallery

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  Shuttle mock-up Explorer at the Kennedy Space Center

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  Mock-up of a Hughes Communications satellite inside Explorer, similar to one carried on STS-49

See also

• Pathfinder (Space Shuttle simulator)