From: http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-122911a.htmlDecember 29, 2011 — NASA's long-running space shuttle program came to its end in 2011, but thanks to a recently signed agreement between the space agency and a Texas university, one of the winged spacecraft's iconic cockpits will continue to "fly."
The Shuttle Motion Simulator (SMS), which for more than three decades exposed astronauts to the sights, sounds, and motions they'd experience when they launched and landed on the real orbiters, is being moved 100 miles from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston to Texas A&M University in College Station. Once there, the hydraulically maneuvered platform will resume work as a simulator.
"The SMS at College Station at Texas A&M is going to be returned to be an operational simulator," Paul Hill, director of mission operations at NASA Johnson, said. "And there, more students and engineers will have the opportunity not just to see it, but actually use it to develop new operations and develop new equipment to be used by next generation spacecraft."
"When the SMS does get to College Station and we install it, we're going to preserve it as a piece of living history," said John Valasek, director of the vehicle systems and control laboratory in Texas A&M's aerospace engineering department. "It is not going to be changed or modified in any significant way. The crew of STS-135, the last crew to fly it, will be able to come into the simulator and see it exactly as it was when they were last in the simulator for training."
"It will be living history that many people can enjoy," said Valasek.
And by many, he didn't mean just engineering students.
"We will use it for public school outreach, for university outreach and university education," Valasek said. "It will be used in engineering classes. It will be available to all majors and all students. And most importantly to me, it will be available to the public."
You Can Still Fly a Shuttle - Sorta
Moderator: Alyrium Denryle
You Can Still Fly a Shuttle - Sorta
I must say, one of the niftier things happening to what are now artifacts of the Shuttle program.
-A.L.
"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence...Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race." - Calvin Coolidge
"If you're falling off a cliff you may as well try to fly, you've got nothing to lose." - John Sheridan (Babylon 5)
"Sometimes you got to roll the hard six." - William Adama (Battlestar Galactica)
"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence...Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race." - Calvin Coolidge
"If you're falling off a cliff you may as well try to fly, you've got nothing to lose." - John Sheridan (Babylon 5)
"Sometimes you got to roll the hard six." - William Adama (Battlestar Galactica)