Guests of the science center sometimes found the outside door that led to the Cube and watched our efforts from the railing. Main Street in Santa Ana is just a few yards from the shuttle and people walked and drove by, gawking at the scene unfolding over the course of the week. Other simulators took the last day in our schedule.Īs Endeavour materialized under DSC's solar-panel-covered Cube, we attracted much attention from passers by. Detail work on the interior, thermal blankets, and hatches, took another two. Primary construction, with the placement of the capstone on the nose of the orbiter, took less than four days. It was amazing to watch how quickly Endeavour came together over the ensuing days. And instead of a whole day, the rain passed quickly, so we only lost about two hours before getting back to work. In the end, things worked out wonderfully in that the rain did arrive but only washed away two years of grime accumulated in storage. I was very worried about the effect of the rain on the exposed structure. We also had a weather forecast that said we would lose an entire day due to an expected downpour. Work proceeded very quickly, because we knew we had limited time. Everything else would now be based on the location of that initial piece. I had the privilege of laying the cornerstone of Endeavour myself, by lifting the rear base piece with the forklift and placing it delicately on the concrete pad. It consists of three levels: three pieces of the base, two pieces of the mid-deck, and two pieces of the flight deck, along with large fiberglass side walls and the jigsaw of the nose section. Even this is huge, measuring a total of 19-feet wide, 19-feet high, and 32-feet long. The portion of the shuttle orbiter to be constructed was the forward section from the nose cap to the cargo bay wall. A team of laborers was assembled, large equipment such as a forklift and crane were located and reserved, a concrete pad was poured to give a level surface to build the shuttle, and flight arrangements were made for our overseas experts.Īfter a good night's sleep, but still suffering from jet-lag from a 24 hour flight west, Faruk and Tamer joined our team and we all set to work. Getting them here would be one hurdle, but making sure we could do it in the time frame imposed by their duties in Izmir would mean we had just a one-week window to accomplish the entire task.ĭiscovery Science Center agreed to bring over the experts from Turkey, so everything was set in motion. These people happened to be staff members of Space Camp Turkey, Faruk Dogan and Tamer Durmas, and were nearly halfwayĪround the world in Izmir, Turkey. I felt that the only way to safely re-construct the orbiter would be with the aid of some of the people who helped take it apart in Mountain View. The other simulators (The Manned Maneuvering Unit MMU, 5 Degrees of Freedom Trainer 5DF, Space Mobility Trainer SMT, and Mission Control) would be placed inside as part of a summer-long space program called "Space: Next Stop Mars." Once again, plans quickly changed as it was decided in Santa Ana to re-build Endeavour this year and place it outside under DSC's signature Cube. Initially, San Diego was scheduled to build their orbiter first, while the Discovery Science Center would put theirs into storage for another couple years, awaiting the building of a huge addition to the science center a large part of which would be dedicated to space exploration. The second half, including Atlantis, would go to the San Diego Aerospace Museum. A new home for Endeavour and half of the other simulators was found at the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, CA. Diligence finally paid off after lots of legwork and phone calls. I worked very hard to help either find a buyer or else a proper place to donate the equipment. Kaya never gave up hope of eventually finding a new home for the vehicles and the other simulators.
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