The Flight Deck of Space Shuttle Endeavour
Explanation:
What would it be like to fly a space shuttle?
Although the last of NASA's space shuttles has now been retired, it is still fun
to contemplate sitting at the controls of one of the humanity's
most sophisticated machines.
Pictured above is the
flight deck
of
Space Shuttle Endeavour,
the youngest shuttle and the second to last ever
launched.
The numerous
panels and
displays allowed the computer-controlled orbiter to enter the top of
Earth's atmosphere at greater than the
speed of sound
and -- just thirty minutes later --
land
on a runway like an airplane.
The
retired space
shuttles are now being sent to museums, with Endeavour being sent to
California
Space Center in Los Angeles, California, Atlantis to the
Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex
on Merritt Island, Florida, and Discovery to the
Udvar-Hazy
Annex of the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia.
Therefore sitting in a
shuttle pilot's chair and personally contemplating the thrill of human space
flight may actually be in your future.
Developing Gallery:
Flyover of Space Shuttle Discovery atop a 747
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
