
- Space shuttle atlantis kennedy space center movie#
- Space shuttle atlantis kennedy space center upgrade#
There’s a c oordinating video that plays throughout the tour to orient visitors as to what they’re seeing. Kids will love seeing the massive building up close, and learning about the crawler transporter, which tops out at a max speed of 1 MPH! The VAB doors are still the tallest in the world at 37 stories high. Now, it's the 6th largest in volume, and could fit 3 3/4 Empire State buildings by volume. The VAB is where all of the Saturn V rockets were constructed before being moved by the crawler to the launch site 3 miles away.įun fact: the VAB is the tallest one story building in the world! When it was built in 1947, it was the world's tallest building. On the 20 minute drive to the building, you’ll learn about the crawlers that transport the rockets to the launch site, and drive by the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building). The tour takes you to the Apollo/Saturn V building, which is only accessible via bus. On this tour, you’ll get a peek into the world of the people who make the space programs possible. The mission is NASA's 132ndspace shuttle flight since the fleet began launching into space in April 1981.After this mission, only two more shuttle flights remain, on Discovery andEndeavour, before NASA retires its three-orbiter fleet later this year.Location: entrance to the bus tour is at the main campus between the Journey to Mars exhibit and the Space Store EDT (1820 GMT) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Liftoff of Atlantis is currently set for Friday at2:20 p.m. In March of this year, "Hubble 3D" was released, withLeonardo DiCaprio narrating.Ītlantis and its finalastronaut crew, a veteran six-man team, will deliver a new Russian sciencemodule called Rassvet (Russian for "Dawn") to the space station onthe shuttle's final mission.
Space shuttle atlantis kennedy space center upgrade#
IMAX cameras made the tripwith the Atlantis crew in 2009 on its mission to upgrade the Hubble SpaceTelescope.

Space shuttle atlantis kennedy space center movie#
Theconclusion of the mission was the last time that repairs or additions will bemade to the Hubble.ħ) Atlantis co-starred ina movie with Leonardo DiCaprio.

Endeavour is scheduled to fly thelast mission of the space shuttle program in November of this year.Ħ) It was the last shuttleto visit the Hubble Space Telescope.ĭuring a May 2009 mission,the Atlantis crew made 5 space walks to repair and add equipment to the Hubble.Īmong the upgrades, the crewinstalled the CosmicOrigins spectrograph, an instrument designed to allow Hubble to peerfarther into the universe in the ultraviolet light spectrum than ever before,and Wide Field Camera 3, which allows astronomersto better observe galaxy evolution, dark matter and dark energy. Itwas decided, Pearlman said, to build the Endeavour shuttle out of the spareAtlantis parts. However, after the Challengershuttle was lost in an explosion in 1986, there was debate about what to do. When NASA built Atlantis, theydecided to make a complete set of spare parts, with the idea that if anyshuttle was damaged, it could easily be repaired. "The shuttle Endeavourexists because of Atlantis," Pearlman said. The other shuttles can stay in space longer. Atlantismust rely solely on the hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells which are carried onboard,and because of this Atlantis missions are limited to a maximum of about 14days. Unlike the other shuttles,Atlantis does not have a spacestation to shuttle power system that would allow the shuttle to tap intothe solar-powered electrical system of the space station while docked. "The amount ofinformation we have learned about our inner solar system due to the mission ofAtlantis will be one of the long-standing legacies that the space shuttleprogram will take credit for," Pearlman said. Then, itmade the only direct observations of a comet colliding with a planet when itcaught the 1994 impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter.

Galileo captured the firstclose-up images of an asteroid while on its way to the giant planet.

In October 1989, the Galileoprobe was launched from Atlantis to study Jupiter. Magellan mapped morethan 98 percent of the surface of Venus, and revealed the planet to be mostlycovered by volcanic materials, dotted with a few impact craters.ģ) It helped NASA to see acomet smack into a planet. It was the first time aninterplanetary probe was launched from a space shuttle. Atlantis flew to the Mir spacestation seven times, and will have flown to the International Space Station11 times, including this last mission.Ģ) Atlantis was the firstshuttle to launch an interplanetary probe.ĭuring a four-day mission in1989, astronauts launched the Magellan spacecraft from the cargo bay ofAtlantis. Atlantis is considered the workhorseand the ferry because it has flown so many missions bringing crews to spacestations and equipment into orbit.
