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Vancouver Off-Topic / Current EventsThe off-topic forum for Vancouver, funnies, non-auto centered discussions, WORK SAFE. While the rules are more relaxed here, there are still rules. Please refer to sticky thread in this forum.
How do you go about moving one of the world's largest planes through city streets? It takes a thousand-foot convoy of self-propelled trailers, and a legion of police and utility crews to move light poles, power lines and traffic signals along the 8-mile route over the course of two nights.
When NASA decided Houston would not receive an actual Space Shuttle, they managed to infuriate the city that had helped build and support the agency for five decades. Space Shuttle Atlantis was kept in Florida at Kennedy Space Center. Discovery went to the Steven F. Udvar Hazy National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia. Los Angeles got Space Shuttle Endeavour. That's the one that made us mad. It made sense to have one at the Smithsonian, and KSC, but LA was chosen purely for the tourist draw. It upset me too, as I grew up near NASA's Johnson Space Center. I went to school with Astronaut's kids, and several of my friends' parents were employed by NASA or their contractors. I drove past the Space Center almost daily, seeing the massive Saturn V rocket displayed among others outside. After I moved away, Space Center Houston brought the Saturn V indoors to a protected environment.
Boeing's Aircraft On Ground (AOG) Team worked for about six weeks at Houston's Ellington Field to carefully remove the 747-SCA's wings, tail and horizontal stabilizer. This mission was a first for the AOG team, as they had never purposefully dismantled an aircraft with the intent of reassembling it at a later date.
N905NA is a Boeing 747-100 that began her life with American Airlines in 1970. NASA acquired the plane in 1974 and was initially used by NASA Dryden (now called NASA Armstrong) for studies in wake vortex effects. Boeing modified the plane in 1976 to begin carrying the prototype Space Shuttle Enterprise. The Enterprise was released from the 747 mounts and then flown as a glider in tests in 1977. It was never launched into space, so I like to say NYC's "Space Shuttle" isn't really a Shuttle. Plus, it looks way out of place on top of the USS Intrepid Aircraft Carrier, but I digress.
Houston did receive a handsome consolation prize in lieu of not getting an authentic Space Shuttle. Once the plane is reassembled at Space Center Houston, the mock-up Shuttle Independence will be mounted on its back, creating a one of a kind, 8-story tall interactive exhibit at a cost of $12 million.
I remember walking around the Saturn V they had on display at the Johnson Space Center, it was pretty fucking awesome. Incredible technology for 1960's, but at heart it's mostly a giant fuel tank.
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