![]() A suite of four technology experiments known as the Technology Experiments for Advancing Missions in Space (TEAMS) also flew in the Shuttle's payload bay. The mission also deployed and retrieved the Spartan-207/IAE (Inflatable Antenna Experiment) satellite and rendezvoused with a test satellite. During the flight the crew performed microgravity research aboard the commercially owned and operated SPACEHAB module. NASA's flight of shuttle Endeavour was devoted to opening the commercial space frontier. The defense and aerospace technology company L'Garde was responsible for the design and manufacture of the Antenna in the Inflatable Antenna Experiment, a key component of the STS-77 mission. The mission began from launch pad 39B from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on lasting 10 days and 40 minutes and completing 161 revolutions before landing on runway 33. It's staying in Florida, at the visitor center right next door to the Kennedy Space Center.STS-77 was the 77th Space Shuttle mission and the 11th mission of the Space Shuttle Endeavour. The last shuttle left will be Atlantis, and it will make the shortest trip of all. The others went to museums in New York and outside Washington, D.C. "You could take your thumb, for example, and just punch it right through one of the tiles."Īfter Endeavour is safely at its final resting place, NASA will have delivered three of its four shuttles. "And as a curator, to be perfectly candid, that makes me a little nervous," Phillips says, noting that although the shuttle's tiles were designed to withstand the extreme heat of re-entering Earth's atmosphere, they're actually very fragile. At some spots, there are clearances of just 6 inches or so, says Phillips. And in municipal government, it's rare that you get an opportunity to participate in such a nationally significant event."Įven with obstructions gone, the route will sometimes be a tight squeeze. Mawusi Watson, chief of staff to the city administrator for Inglewood, says, "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It's promised to not just replace them but plant even more in a 2-for-1 deal. The science center says the vast majority are small trees. Workers remove a tree from a median in the middle of Manchester Boulevard in Inglewood, Calif., on Sept. "There are McDonald's along the way, absolutely, there are McDonald's everyplace in L.A.," says a laughing Phillips, who knows the route well. So the iconic shuttle will be a surreal sight, moving slowly down wide commercial boulevards and passing places like Starbucks coffee shops and fast-food joints. ![]() ![]() "You can't pull the wings off and do things like we could with other aircraft." "You couldn't take the tail off it," Phillips says. ![]() Taking the space shuttle apart and transporting it in pieces just wasn't possible because of the way it's covered in heat shield tiles, explains Ken Phillips, curator for aerospace science at the California Science Center, which won a fierce competition last year to get one of NASA's retired shuttles. Getting it through the city streets in one piece is no easy feat. That's because Endeavour is simply huge: Its wingspan is 78 feet and the tip of its tail is five stories off the ground. That two-day, 1-mile-per-hour trip is scheduled for mid-October, and the planning for it has rivaled the amount of preparation it used to take to launch Endeavour into space. The giant spaceship will ride on top of a special transporter for about 12 miles. Then, after processing at the airport, the shuttle will have to make a long, unprecedented trip through city streets. ![]()
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