You're seeing the full shuttle stack that we've been dreaming of. "We've been working toward this for decades. "This is an incredible day," said Alyson Goodall, senior vice president at the California Science Center. Two cranes then hoisted the lifting sling and shuttle into the air. Two tuning-fork shaped devices acted as a lifting sling- one at the front, one at the back of the shuttle. Those components, part of the launch-ready configuration, were moved earlier - also fitted with Olympic's special shrink wrap.īefore the heavy lift, Endeavour was fitted with a sling-type device attached to the crane. On Monday two cranes lifted the shuttle 200 to 300 feet over the Oschin Center walls, then lowered the craft into position between the boosters and next to a 65,000-pound external fuel tank known as ET-94. Once the new 200,000-square-foot Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center is opened, the Endeavour will be the only full-stack NASA space shuttle on display in an upright, launch-ready position. The wrap really worked out well," Groark said. "They ended up rolling it out of the hangar, and then we staged it on the back lawn, and after that, we had a huge rainstorm, so the shuttle was protected. The first assessment for how their product would hold up came days after they finished when an atmospheric river storm hit California with torrential downpours. The entire project took six days and seven rolls of 40 by 100-foot-long plastic rolls. The Olympic team of six decided to use strapping to hoist pieces of shrinkwrap from the ceiling and walls, suspending the product in air as they attached the next piece, seemingly defying gravity while they wrapped. "How are we going to put this whole wrap of plastic around this whole thing without being able to hold it in place?" "The engineers said, look, 'You can't use any tape and you can't use any strapping because the heat shield tiles that are placed on the bottom are just glued on.' And so, if our tape came in contact or any strapping, it would actually crush those tiles or those tiles might be removed," Groark said. They came up with a game plan for how to shrinkwrap the spacecraft, which is 122 feet long with a 78-foot wingspan, but challenges presented themselves along the way. The Olympic team was first approached for the project in mid-December. "Our shrink wrap basically cocoons it and protects it for, I think, about two years while the builders construct a whole building around it and put a whole roof over it," Groark said, confident that his product would stand the test of time. The shuttle, which was previously part of a horizontal display at the Science Center in Exposition Park, will sit exposed to the elements as construction crews take years to build the walls of the new exhibit around the towering shuttle. Sign up for NBC San Diego newsletters.Īnd withhold it must. On the third attempt, Endeavour Commander Daniel Brandenstein carefully maneuvered the orbiter to within a few feet of the communications satellite and it was finally captured by hand by using a team of three astronauts, Thuot, Hieb and Thomas Akers. This marked the first and only time that three astronauts have been on an extravehicular activity (EVA) or spacewalk at the same time. An ASEM, or Assembly of Station by EVA Methods structure was erected in the cargo bay by the crew to serve as a platform to aid in the hand capture and subsequent attachment of the capture bar. The satellite was later released, and the new motor fired to put it into a geosynchronous orbit for operational use. Endeavour landed at Edwards Air Force Base on after an 8-day,21-hour mission.Get San Diego local news, weather forecasts, sports and lifestyle stories to your inbox. To attach the kick motor would end up requiring three separate spacewalks. The first was a planned one by astronauts Pierre Thuot and Richard Hieb. They were supposed to attach a capture bar to the satellite from a position on the Endeavour’s robotic arm but were unsuccessful. A second unscheduled attempt was made the following day to attach the capture bar but was also unsuccessful.
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