A full-size mockup of the space shuttle orbiter that was built as a contractor's showcase model before NASA decided on the spacecraft's final design is heading back on display after more than 25 years in storage.
For the past decade, the City of Downey in California has worked on plans to exhibit the North American Rockwell model after rediscovering its existence in 2012. Nine years later, state lawmakers approved $800,000 to restore the plywood and plastic space shuttle ahead of its display at the city's Columbia Memorial Space Center in Discovery Park.
Then, in May of this year, the city completed a environmental review for the Space Shuttle Exhibit & Education Building Project, giving the go to construct a 29,000-square-foot (2,700 square meters) expansion to the space center. The two-story building will include a dedicated space to exhibit the 122-foot-long by 35-foot-tall (37 by 11 m) original concept model for NASA's winged orbiters, as well as an event space for up to 300 attendees, offices and classrooms.
Named "Inspiration" by the Columbia Memorial Space Center, the model has sat in outdoor storage, divided into segments and covered in plastic tarps, since briefly being exhibited under a temporary tent 12 years ago. Now preparations are being made to move the shuttle's pieces to a facility where it can be reassembled and restored for display.
Related: NASA's space shuttles: Where are they now?
Although only traveling three city blocks, Inspiration's relocation is expected to take two days, Oct. 17 and 18. Public viewing of the move will be available, with details to be announced close to the dates.
Work on Inspiration's new, permanent display home is expected to begin in 2025 and continue through to the next year. An opening date has not been announced. The space center first needs to raise an additional $50 million for the structure's construction and outfitting.
In addition to Inspiration, the plan is for the building to also house temporary exhibits, ranging "from small Mars rover models to space-flown Dragon capsules," according to the city's report.
The Downey exhibit will add a second full-size space shuttle orbiter on display in the Los Angeles area. The California Science Center at Exposition Park is currently constructing the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center on the site, where earlier this year NASA's orbiter Endeavour was mated to the last built-for-flight space shuttle external fuel tank and a pair of flight-worthy solid rocket boosters.
After winning the contract to build the orbiters, North American Rockwell (today, Boeing) used the full-size mockup as a fit check tool for instruments and payloads being built for the space-worthy vehicles. For the first half of the 30-year shuttle program, the model, less one wing and part of its vertical stabilizer (or tail) was used as a public relations tool, but then was put into storage when the plant where it was housed closed in 1999.
The temporary move in 2012 to the Columbia Memorial Space Center and then outdoor storage was to clear its former location for retail development.
The Columbia Memorial Space Center, which was named after NASA's first winged orbiter to launch into space but which was lost with its STS-107 crew while reentering the atmosphere in 2003, was opened in 2009. The museum serves to both preserve the aerospace history of the Downey area while engaging a new generation in science, technology and engineering through hands-on exhibits.
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