![]() The idea is the Shuttle rocks around harmlessly until the shaking ground settles down. Several sliding bearings, or seismic isolators, sit between the Shuttle and its supporting pillars, insulating Endeavour from the perils of Los Angeles’ earthquakes. ![]() Tiles (part of Space Shuttle Thermal Protection System TPS) Tiles (part of Space Shuttle Thermal Protection System TPS) Tiles (part of Space Shuttle Thermal Protection System TPS) Tiles (part of Space Shuttle Thermal Protection System TPS) Close-up If you think tiling round the bathroom wash-basin is tricky, take a look at the area round the main engine gimbals and thrusters of the Shuttle. The complexity and variation of tile design is striking. Designed not to ablate like the heat shields on the Apollo capsules, tiles do suffer wear and damage, and some had clearly been replaced with new ones for display. The famous tiles, part of the Shuttle’s Thermal Protection System (TPS), are unmistakable. Thrusters Nose Thrusters (Reaction Control System) Nose Thrusters Close-up Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) Pods with thrusters Space Shuttle Endeavour at the California Science Center FlapĮngines RS-25 Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME) RS-25 Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME) and port Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) pod RS-25 Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME), Gimbal area Gimbal area close-up Main Engine The flap looks small and flimsy on the film, but it’s a huge construction the forces must be tremendous. I’ve seen video of the shuttle during ascent (in fact you can see it in Matt Mellis’s movie/iPad App called ‘Ascent’), where the ‘body flap’ – that piece below the engine in the picture below – is vibrating violently it’s positively oscillating. Except the distress, evidently manageable, is real. It looks like she’s been treated like some science fiction fan might treat an Airfix model of the Millennium Falcon: roughed up, artificially distressed – so it looks like the real thing. But my gut reaction is how big she is, the length of the cargo bay, and how….dirty. There is of course plenty of engineering to appreciate, and science behind it to ponder. Main Hatch Space Shuttle Endeavour at the California Science Center ![]() Then I’m back imagining all those tiles, engines, doors, and windows flying apart.Īnd there on Endeavour is that area of wing leading-edge, damaged on Columbia by falling debris during launch, causing her demise on re-entry in 2003 (more on that in this earlier post). At one point I found myself back in my lab as a research student in Birmingham in 1986, hearing about the Challenger accident. Space Shuttle Endeavour at the California Science Center. That’s twice I’ve been emotionally sucked in by an iconic cliché. ![]() I’d set myself to appreciative-engineer-mode before I went in, but still felt like I was standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon for the first time you’ve seen all the postcards and videos, and can’t imagine the real deal adding anything new – but it does. My wife Erin said she felt unexpectedly moved after our visit. I did kind of wish for a second or two today, staring up at the big, black, underbelly of Space Shuttle Endeavour – boxed away at the California Science Center in Los Angeles – that I’d made more of an effort to see she or her sisters performing live.Īm I getting all mushy and romantic about a spacecraft now? Well, maybe just a bit. Space Transportation System STS-47 (Endeavour Space Shuttle) at the California Science Center.
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