Posted on 04/18/2012 8:13:38 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit & Copyright: Ben Cooper (Launch Photography), Spaceflight Now]
Developing Gallery: Flyover of Space Shuttle Discovery atop a 747
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The control sticks look like the stick shift in my Jeep.
At the time, the most complex machine ever built by man. Still impressive testimony to American Exceptionalism.
Good bye manned space flight! Good bye space exploration!
Hubble is expected to last until 2014 with a replacement that is now up in the air...
Obama now thinks NASA’s #1 goal should be diversity, NOT exploring the heavens.
Sad. Sad. Sad. That is what I think when I look at this photo.
I’d like to reach out and BSlap a certain muzzie!
Okay is this just wildly cool or what? This is what American exceptionalism looks like President Grovel.
If you have vertigo it could make you ill.
WOW. That’s very complicated.
remember to tell your grandchildren that men once walked on the moon
it will be wikied down the memory hole soon
There’s an old saying among Muzzies — that Islam will endure until man walks on the Moon.
Obama has converted NASA to a non-flying outreach program to Muzzies around the world.
Weird coincidence.
Betcha most muzzies still don't believe anyone did walk on the moon.
(Apollo 17 picture)
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