My NASA tour

flyingcheesehead

Touchdown! Greaser!
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iMooniac
Hey everyone,

I promised I'd post a pic of me in the shuttle sim, and I got some others too. I will try to post a bunch more, along the story, on a blog later (I'll post the address in this thread when I'm done with it).

I have a few cool shots I'll post here right now though. First, in the Virtual Reality lab:

Image-EA6083F2E8D111D9.jpg


Next, the side of Mission Control most people don't get to go into:

Image-EA67BE23E8D111D9.jpg


And finally, of course, yours truly the shuttle pilot extraordinaire :yes:

Image-EA6976D5E8D111D9.jpg
 
In the shuttle sim....to the left of the vertical tapes...is that a white Westbend timer velcro'd to the panel?

Len
 
Interesting place isn't it? What were you doing there? (I guess I missed a thread somewhere???)

flyingcheesehead said:
First, in the Virtual Reality lab:

Sure someone isn't about to throw the switch on you?

flyingcheesehead said:
Next, the side of Mission Control most people don't get to go into:

BTDT (my cousin use to work in a building across from that one doing something or other)

flyingcheesehead said:
And finally, of course, yours truly the shuttle pilot extraordinaire :yes:

There ya go. Is that the full fuselage mockup with the launch simulator next to it? Out the left window and back some IIRC though they might have moved it by now. If so I actually sat in that same seat actually. The flight deck is a lot bigger in person than it looks. (edit: on second look through those windows, that doesn't look like the generic mockup - I think you got a good one up on me)

My cousin actually got us into the vacuum chamber and vac control room that day while they were doing maintenance with the big door open. We went several places the public wasn't allowed.

One of these days I'm going to have to try to get the 1976 pictures put on CD that my dad took of us at KSC when it was open to the public. VAB, pad launch control room underground (really neat place they even have pencils chained down), 39A, 39B, the real LM simulator. I also had my first digital picture taken there and printed out in ascii though it took a mainframe several minutes to do it - way cool!
 
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Len Lanetti said:
In the shuttle sim....to the left of the vertical tapes...is that a white Westbend timer velcro'd to the panel?

Len

OK, Len. You owe me one keyboard. Damn that's funny.

And I think I see Narco avionics! Or is that ARC? I can't tell. LOL!!! Nasa, has had some budget cuts, please tell them they can loose the ADF now.
 
So, if the Shuttle launches from Florida, and lands in California two weeks later, do the pilots log 336 hours of cross country time?
 
Joe Williams said:
So, if the Shuttle launches from Florida, and lands in California two weeks later, do the pilots log 336 hours of cross country time?

And since they crossed the International Date Line, can the log the time form yesterday, today?
 
Joe Williams said:
So, if the Shuttle launches from Florida, and lands in California two weeks later, do the pilots log 336 hours of cross country time?

If it lands in Florida is it a local flight?
 
Anthony said:
And I think I see Narco avionics! Or is that ARC? I can't tell. LOL!!! Nasa, has had some budget cuts, please tell them they can loose the ADF now.

That's an HSI underneath the AI.

The other thing is that the AI is this wicked 3-d thing. It actually incorporates a DG. The middle portion is globe-shaped and rotates in all three axes to give it this capability.

However, all of the actual shuttles have been upgraded to glass cockpits. My sister was rather surprised to still see the old stuff in the mockup.
 
Joe Williams said:
So, if the Shuttle launches from Florida, and lands in California two weeks later, do the pilots log 336 hours of cross country time?

Theoretically yes, if they land in CA - However, these days they usually just land it back at Kennedy. They've gotten good enough to not need the big field.
Of course, that means we're now wasting one taxpayer-bought 747.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Theoretically yes, if they land in CA - However, these days they usually just land it back at Kennedy. They've gotten good enough to not need the big field.
Of course, that means we're now wasting one taxpayer-bought 747.

IIRC, they are only supposed to land at Edwards if the weather in Florida is crap, and they've been up too long. I think they can also land at White Sands.
 
fgcason said:
Interesting place isn't it? What were you doing there? (I guess I missed a thread somewhere???)

Well, it starts like this... I planned on coming to Gaston's. Then my friend Christy, who works in Houston during the summer, suggested that I come to visit her this summer. So, I decided to visit Christy as well as my sister, who is a NASA engineer and gave me the super-tour.

fgcason said:
There ya go. Is that the full fuselage mockup with the launch simulator next to it? Out the left window and back some IIRC though they might have moved it by now. If so I actually sat in that same seat actually. The flight deck is a lot bigger in person than it looks. (edit: on second look through those windows, that doesn't look like the generic mockup - I think you got a good one up on me)

I think we did get in the same one, maybe. It was the full-size mockup. Last time (7 years ago) I got into the mini one, though it was level at the time and seemed a lot more cramped than this one for some reason. The launch mockup was tilted up on its nose for some reason... I don't think that's a normal attitude for the Shuttle. :no:

fgcason said:
My cousin actually got us into the vacuum chamber and vac control room that day while they were doing maintenance with the big door open. We went several places the public wasn't allowed.

Ahh, the big door. Didn't do that this time, but I have moved that door myself. Amazing that it's so well designed and maintained that little ol' me can move it by myself. (It weighs 40 tons, IIRC.) And I lost count of how many "RESTRICTED AREA" chains I went through today. I really felt like a rock star when I was sitting in the shuttle cockpit and one of the tours came through and a bunch of school kids were waving to me and some guy was videotaping me! :yes:

I haven't been to KSC or seen a launch (Atlas Centaur, not Shuttle) since 1985.
 
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Steve said:
snip
If they keep cutting back on the number of flights it won't make much difference, anyway.

They'll keep cutting back flights. The Shuttle's day is done. It's outdated technology, and not terribly safe. A replacement is overdue, and the Shuttle should be retired with all the honor and dignity it's earned.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
I think we did get in the same one, maybe. It was the full-size mockup. Last time (7 years ago) I got into the mini one, though it was level at the time and seemed a lot more cramped than this one for some reason. The launch mockup was tilted up on its nose for some reason... I don't think that's a normal attitude for the Shuttle. :no:

Bobbing nose down in the ocean evacuation training maybe? :eek:

flyingcheesehead said:
I really felt like a rock star when I was sitting in the shuttle cockpit and one of the tours came through and a bunch of school kids were waving to me and some guy was videotaping me! :yes:

In someone's household today, you are now officially a genueine offecial spaceman astronaut... B)

flyingcheesehead said:
I haven't been to KSC or seen a launch (Atlas Centaur, not Shuttle) since 1985.

The whole area was open to the public in 1976. If you can ever get a special tour there, do it. The trenches under the pad are HUGE and that launch control room is interesting. They said it could take a direct hit from a fully loaded Saturn V in the amount of time it takes to get there after liftoff though they'd be a while digging you out afterward. Prelaunch checklist on one of the desks said helmets secure, seatbelts secure, no loose items.
 
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