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Space Shuttle Inspiration
Space Shuttle ''Inspiration'' is a full-scale Space Shuttle mockup built in 1972 by North American Rockwell. The plastic and wood model was made to promote the company's bid to construct the Space Shuttle fleet. History The Space Shuttle Orbiter mockup was constructed by North American Rockwell in 1972. It was shown to NASA and Congress to win approval for the Space Shuttle program. The mockup is approximately the same size and shape as an actual Orbiter. It was also used to design cable harnesses for production shuttle Orbiters and to test-fit flight hardware. The mockup was abandoned in place by NASA, so the owners of the property placed it on temporary display at the Columbia Memorial Space Center in Downey, California, in July 2012. Refurbishment and naming After sitting in storage for many years, in 2012, the owners decided to refurbish ''Inspiration''. A 2009 grant proposal estimated the cost of refurbishment and housing at $1,880,000, with about half going to rest ...
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North American Rockwell
North American Aviation (NAA) was a major American aerospace manufacturer that designed and built several notable aircraft and spacecraft. Its products included: the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F-86 Sabre jet fighter, the X-15 rocket plane, the XB-70, the B-1 Lancer, the Apollo command and service module, the second stage of the Saturn V rocket, and the Space Shuttle orbiter. Through a series of mergers and sales, North American Aviation became part of North American Rockwell, which later became Rockwell International, and is now part of Boeing. History Early years On December 6, 1928, Clement Melville Keys founded North American as a holding company that bought and sold interests in various airlines and aviation-related companies. However, the Air Mail Act of 1934 forced the breakup of such holding companies. North American became a manufacturing company, run by James H. "Dutch" Kindelberger, who had been recruited from D ...
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Columbia Memorial Space Science Learning Center
The Columbia Memorial Space Center (CMSC) is a science museum in the Los Angeles area, at 12400 Columbia Way, City of Downey, California, US. It is owned and operated by Downey, and open to the general public as a hands-on space museum and activity center. Mission The center's stated mission is to "ignite people's passion in science, technology, engineering, and space while honoring Downey's aerospace history." History The site of the museum is the former Boeing/ Rockwell/North American plant where all of the Apollo Command/Service Modules were built and the Space Shuttle was conceived. In 1999, when the Downey Plant closed, the City of Downey began a redevelopment effort, including an educational component. In early 2007, a builder — Tower General Contractors — was selected, and ground was broken on April 12, 2007, on the 18,000 square foot project. First opened in 2008, CMSC is recognized as the National Memorial to the Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' and its crew that was l ...
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Space Shuttle Tourist Attractions
Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless four-dimensional continuum known as spacetime. The concept of space is considered to be of fundamental importance to an understanding of the physical universe. However, disagreement continues between philosophers over whether it is itself an entity, a relationship between entities, or part of a conceptual framework. Debates concerning the nature, essence and the mode of existence of space date back to antiquity; namely, to treatises like the ''Timaeus'' of Plato, or Socrates in his reflections on what the Greeks called ''khôra'' (i.e. "space"), or in the ''Physics'' of Aristotle (Book IV, Delta) in the definition of ''topos'' (i.e. place), or in the later "geometrical conception of place" as "s ...
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Space Shuttle Pathfinder
The Space Shuttle ''Pathfinder'' (unofficial Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-098) is a Space Shuttle test simulator made of steel and wood. Constructed by NASA in 1977 as an unnamed facilities test article, it was purchased in the early 1980s by the America-Japan Society, Inc. which had it refurbished, named it, and placed it on display in the Great Space Shuttle Exhibition in Tokyo. The mockup was later returned to the United States and placed on permanent display at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, in May 1988. Activities Originally unnamed, the simulator was built at the Marshall Space Flight Center in 1977 for use in activities such as checking roadway clearances, crane capabilities and fits within structures. It was later shipped by barge to the Kennedy Space Center and was used for ground crew testing in the Vehicle Assembly Building, Orbiter Processing Facility, and Shuttle Landing Facility. ''Pathfinder'' is approximately the same size, shape and ...
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Space Center Houston
Space Center Houston is a science museum that serves as the official visitor center of NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. It was designated a Smithsonian Affiliate museum in 2014. The organization is owned by NASA, and operated under a contract by the nonprofit Manned Spaceflight Education Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization. The Johnson Space Center is the home of Mission Control and astronaut training. The center opened in 1992 replacing the former Visitor Center in Johnson Space Center Building 2. The museum is and displays over 400 space artifacts, including the Mercury 9, Gemini 5, and Apollo 17 space capsules. Starship gallery This artifact gallery includes three flown spacecraft, several used in training, and a display of Moon rocks: * Mercury 9 capsule (''Faith 7'') flown by Gordon Cooper in 1963 * Gemini 5 capsule flown by Gordon Cooper and Pete Conrad in 1965 * Apollo 17 Command Module ''America'' flown by Gene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Dr. Harrison " Ja ...
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Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex
The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is the visitor center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida. It features exhibits and displays, historic spacecraft and memorabilia, shows, two IMAX theaters, and a range of bus tours of the spaceport. The "Space Shuttle ''Atlantis''" exhibit contains the Space Shuttle Atlantis, ''Atlantis'' orbiter and the Shuttle Launch Experience, a simulated ride into space. The center also provides astronaut training experiences, including a multi-axial chair and Mars Base simulator. The visitor complex also has daily presentations from a veteran NASA astronaut. A bus tour, included with admission, encompasses the separate Apollo/Saturn V Center. There were 1.7 million visitors to the visitor complex in 2016. History The complex had its beginning in 1963 when NASA Administrator James E. Webb, James Webb established self-guided tours where the public could drive along a predetermined route through the Cape Canaveral Air Force St ...
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Space Shuttle Atlantis
Space Shuttle ''Atlantis'' (Orbiter Vehicle designation: OV‑104) is a Space Shuttle orbiter vehicle which belongs to NASA, the spaceflight and space exploration agency of the United States. ''Atlantis'' was manufactured by the Rockwell International company in Southern California and was delivered to the Kennedy Space Center in Eastern Florida in April 1985. ''Atlantis'' is also the fourth operational and the second-to-last Space Shuttle built. Its maiden flight was STS-51-J made from October 3 to 7, 1985. ''Atlantis'' embarked on its 33rd and final mission, also the final mission of a space shuttle, STS-135, on July 8, 2011. STS-134 by ''Endeavour'' was expected to be the final flight before STS-135 was authorized in October 2010. STS-135 took advantage of the processing for the STS-335 Launch on Need mission that would have been necessary if STS-134's crew became stranded in orbit. ''Atlantis'' landed for the final time at the Kennedy Space Center on July 21, 20 ...
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Space Shuttle Independence
Space Shuttle ''Independence'', formerly known as ''Explorer'', is a full-scale, high-fidelity replica of the Space Shuttle. It was built by Guard-Lee in Apopka, Florida, installed at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in 1993, and moved to Space Center Houston in 2012. It was built using schematics, blueprints and archival documents provided by NASA and by shuttle contractors such as Rockwell International. While many of the features on the replica are simulated, some parts, including the landing gear's Michelin tires, have been used in the Space Shuttle program. The model is long, high, has a wingspan, and weighs . Kennedy Space Center ''Independence'', then known as ''Explorer'', was displayed at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex atop cement pilings and secured with steel cabling. Visitor access was provided by a gantry-style tower with ramps and an elevator for accessibility. Inside, visitors could view a mock-up payload, a mannequin wearing an early model of the ...
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Space Camp (United States)
Space Camp is an educational summer camp, camp in Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville, Alabama, on the grounds of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center museum near NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. It provides residential and educational programs for children and adults on themes such as space exploration, aviation and robotics. The camp is run by a state government agency, the Alabama Space Science Exhibit Commission. More than 900,000 campers have graduated since 1982, including several who became astronauts. History Space Camp was founded in 1982 as an educational camp using the United States NASA, space program as a basis to promote math and science to children. The idea was the result of a comment by rocket scientist Wernher von Braun who was touring the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in 1977 when he noticed a group of schoolchildren studying rockets and said to the museum director, "You know, we have all these camps for youngsters in this country - band camps and cheerleader camps and ...
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Press-Telegram
The ''Press-Telegram'' is a paid daily newspaper published in Long Beach, California. Coverage area for the ''Press-Telegram'' includes Long Beach, Lakewood, Signal Hill, Artesia, Bellflower, Cerritos, Compton, Downey, Hawaiian Gardens, Lynwood, Norwalk and Paramount. History The ''Press-Telegram'''s precursor, the ''Press'', was first published in 1897. The ''Press'' was purchased in the early 20th century by Charles H. Prisk and William F. Prisk, Charles being the owner and William the editor and publisher. Sometime after 1918 the ''Press'' was merged with another paper, the ''Daily Telegram''; the combined paper was first published under the name ''Daily Press'' then, from 1924, the ''Press-Telegram''. On September 30, 1933, the ''Press-Telegram'' published what David Dayen called "One of the more influential letters to the editor in American history": Francis Townsend's letter outlining the Townsend Plan, a proposal that sparked a national campaign which influenced ...
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Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States. The publication has won more than 40 Pulitzer Prizes. It is owned by Patrick Soon-Shiong and published by the Times Mirror Company. The newspaper’s coverage emphasizes California and especially Southern California stories. In the 19th century, the paper developed a reputation for civic boosterism and opposition to labor unions, the latter of which led to the bombing of its headquarters in 1910. The paper's profile grew substantially in the 1960s under publisher Otis Chandler, who adopted a more national focus. In recent decades the paper's readership has declined, and it has been beset by a series of ownership changes, staff reductions, and other controversies. In January 2018, the paper's staff voted to unionize ...
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Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS), taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft where it was the only item funded for development. The first ( STS-1) of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights ( STS-5) beginning in 1982. Five complete Space Shuttle orbiter vehicles were built and flown on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. They launched from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Operational missions launched numerous satellites, interplanetary probes, and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), conducted science experiments in orbit, participated in the Shuttle-''Mir'' program with Russia, and participated in construction and servicing of the International Space Station (ISS ...
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