Get Inside the Replica That Trained Every Shuttle Astronaut

via wired.com

It’s not named Atlantis, Discovery, Endeavor or Enterprise. But the Full Fuselage Trainer at the Museum of Flight in Seattle is the only full-size artifact of the space shuttle program that visitors can actually go inside and follow in the footsteps of every shuttle astronaut. There will even be limited access to tour the flight deck, complete with its control sticks, countless switches and pilot seats. The well-worn trainer was used by all of the crews who flew aboard the shuttle orbiters since the first flight back in 1981.

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Space Shuttle Atlantis hands-on: a look inside (video)

via engadget.com

Space Shuttles Discovery, Endeavour and Enterprise have all left Kennedy Space Center for new homes, but Atlantis? She's staying. Come November 2nd, the orbiter will be wheeled out to a 65,000-square-foot exhibit, which is still being constructed at KSC's visitor complex. Though the craft's cargo bay doors will be open and its remote manipulator arm extended when its displayed, visitors won't be able to climb aboard it -- or any of the other shuttles, for that matter. However, we got the chance to visit Bay 2 of the Orbiter Processing Facility, step inside Atlantis and give it the hands-on treatment. Look out below for the gallery or hit the jump for the full video tour.

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All 135 space shuttle launches at once [video]

via vimeo.com

Thirty years, 135 launches. Filmmaker and artist McLean Fahnestock gives the NASA Space Shuttle program a proper send-off with a four-minute clip showing every launch at once.

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Awe-Inspiring Photos of the Last Flight of Space Shuttle Discovery

via fstoppers.com

As Fstoppers’ resident aviation dork, I felt compelled to share these incredible images of the last time Space Shuttle Discovery will take to the air. Discovery was recently retired, and has been ferried from her home in Florida to it’s final resting place, the Udvar-Hazy Center, an annex of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum. Not only is the entire process of ferrying a shuttle a technological marvel in and of itself, the photos that Nasa takes aren’t half bad, either.

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Jeff Bezos' Exploration Team Just Found the Apollo 11 Rockets at the Bottom of The Ocean

via gizmodo.com

A Jeff Bezos-funded team of sea explorers has located the Apollo 11 rockets that helped get man get to the moon.

On July 16th, 1969, five F-1 rockets powered Apollo 11 off the ground with one and a half million pounds of thrust, and 32 million horsepower. A few minutes later, the first stage rockets detached from the space craft and plummeted 38 miles to the ocean.

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One of the Most Beautiful Images of the Space Shuttle

via gizmodo.com

Some cray cray individuals think that the Canary Islands were the door to the lost continent of Atlantis. That's one of the reasons I like this image of Atlantis—the space shuttle—flying parallel to the Canarian island of Tenerife.

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A Lego Tribute To The End Of The Space Shuttle Era

via themarysue.com

Well this is just plain pretty. It’s a Lego-made space shuttle launch! YouTube user vinciverse writes, “The launch took place from central Germany and reached a max altitude of 35000m. A 1600g meteo balloon filled with helium was used alongside a GoPro Hero, Spot GPS and of course Lego Space Shuttle model 3367.” (The song is “Welcome Home” by Radical Face) No word on how, when or if it ever came back to Earth but I like to think it just kept going…

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