Shuttle Training Aircraft And Full-Scale Shuttle Mockup
Explorer Available
The final space shuttle landing July 21 opened new prospects for
eligible education institutions, museums and other organizations to
receive a piece of spaceflight history. The eighth batch of
artifacts from NASA's space programs became available
Monday on a website that NASA and the General Services
Administration (GSA) developed.
Scott Carpenter Space Analog
Habitat
The artifacts are not only from the shuttle era, but also from
the Apollo, Mercury, Hubble Space Telescope programs. The items
include:
- The full-scale space shuttle orbiter mockup Explorer, currently
on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in
Florida.
- The Scott Carpenter Space Analog Station, an underwater
habitat, currently at Johnson Space Center in Houston.
- Parts of Apollo and shuttle era spacesuits.
Each artifact will be available for 42 days. For the first 21
days, internal organizations such as NASA visitor centers, agency
exhibit managers and the Smithsonian Institution may request
artifacts. External organizations, including museums, schools,
universities, libraries, and planetariums may request artifacts
during the following 21 days. After the screening period and
completion of the request process, organizations will be notified
about the status of their application.
Artifacts are incrementally released when NASA no longer needs
them, in accordance with export control laws and regulations. They
are provided free of charge, but requesting organizations must pay
for shipping and any special handling costs.
To date, approximately 29,000 items of historic significance
have been offered, mainly from the shuttle, with contributions from
the Hubble, Apollo, Mercury, Gemini, and International Space
Station programs. Approximately 3,000 artifacts have been
requested. The remainder will be considered for federal and state
reuse and then offered to the general public for sale.
Shuttle Training Aircraft
In addition to artifacts, NASA also is offering, for donation
and possible sale, a Shuttle Training Aircraft (STA) through
another GSA hosted web-based site:
The STA is a modified Gulfstream II that allowed pilots to
simulate orbiter landings under controlled conditions. Other STAs
will be displayed at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Dryden
Flight Research Center in California, and the U.S. Space and Rocket
Center in Huntsville, AL.