My wife and I toured the shuttle trainer today, the first day anyone could do so normally.
We were shown the mid deck and the WCS then taken to the flight deck. The interior is well used, let's just say, just I thought it'd be. It being the first weekend, they gave away a nice bag of swag to the people who'd signed up for the first tours (they were specific to say they won't be repeating this in the future), including some 'astronaut ice cream' and a certificate stating you'd toured the FFT. Great thing I brought my wife along and she didn't want any of it (other than the pin they gave her, I opted for the patch of the same design).
OUTSIDE AND CARGO BAY AREA (this is what the public gets to see any time they walk in to the building):
To the hatch (note the drag marks where crews practiced roping out of the top hatches):
GETTING INSIDE (you can only do this on weekends with a special ticket bought well in advance):
Mid deck lockers, still with added velcro and signs from previous crews:
I didn't realize the waste disposal was right next to the main hatch...
Entry to the ISS airlock collar:
My favorite part (I was surprised how little room there is in here, it's more crowded than a airliner's flight deck:
Canada arm and other controls, some of the few areas that are plexiglassed over:
And me, gloating...
Tour of the shuttle FFT in Seattle
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Tour of the shuttle FFT in Seattle
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Re: Tour of the shuttle FFT in Seattle
The IUS hanging above the cargo bay is a nice touch. Interesting to see that the FFT was never updated with the glass cockpit and still has the old CRT screens. I like how the tour is setup to go inside the cargo bay. Do you get to crawl through the airlock for that?
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Re: Tour of the shuttle FFT in Seattle
Yeah, they said the cockpit hadn't been updated much since Young and Crippen first tried it out for STS-1. It seriously made me question it as a valueable training aid in that case.Hotdog wrote:The IUS hanging above the cargo bay is a nice touch. Interesting to see that the FFT was never updated with the glass cockpit and still has the old CRT screens. I like how the tour is setup to go inside the cargo bay. Do you get to crawl through the airlock for that?
Anyone who's been to SC will feel like Spam in a can in the cockpit if the FFT. I was really shocked at how tight it was in there (my 5'2" wife even had to check her head in places).
The carbo bay is blocked off with plexi to the airlock. Anyone can look into the cargo bay at any time, through an entrance to the back.
They also had display cases at the rear of the display, which had the flight suit and jacket for crewmen killed in the Challenger and Columbia disasters. It was quite sobering. Also they had lots of other NASA flight gear which of course I was interested in.
And Deke Slayton's jacket from when he was chief astronaut, in the main gallery of the same museum:
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Re: Tour of the shuttle FFT in Seattle
I went back today as the museum had a sale of excess books from their research library, and I did the tour again right afterward. It was hard not to correct the guide (a teen who didn't even know any shuttle ever had ejection seats, nor that there was a landing at an alternate site other than KSC or Edwards), and it was tough to realize it's be a year before I could get my hands on anything looking like this at Huntsville...
I had to get this shot, just so people would wonder the heck I was, because anyone who's ever been to SC knows I'm not there in this photo...
I had to get this shot, just so people would wonder the heck I was, because anyone who's ever been to SC knows I'm not there in this photo...
Skidmark
Space Academy: 2012, 2013 and 2014
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Undefeated for winning mission patch designs!
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Space Academy: 2012, 2013 and 2014
Advanced Space Academy: 2016 and 2018
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