Four shuttles and a Boeing 747: NASA Shuttle Tour 2013

---

It all began in Fall 2012 at the Houston Air Show. We planned this trip in tandem with a lesson on aerodynamics and how planes work. Little did we know that it would determine our next year of domestic travel.

The surprise exhibition at the air show this year was the Boeing 747 used to ferry NASA's shuttles across the country - also known as Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) 905. After recently delivering the decommissioned Shuttle Endeavor to Los Angeles for display at the California Science Center, SCA 905 made one last flight to Ellington for the air show, to be given to Space Center Houston for display. It was a very grand sight, towering over all of the military jets and helicopters, and it fit in perfectly with a book on Boeing aircraft that I had been reading to the kids.

On our way home, we decided that this would be a great opportunity to expand the field trip and visit all of the space shuttles in the next year. First, I had to find out exactly where they all landed up, which was only recently decided and exhibit dates still not completely clear (recently, I've found http://www.collectspace.com/shuttles/, which is a good site to keep up with Shuttle news). But the stars were aligned as we had already planned a trip to Los Angeles, site of Endeavor.

The California Science Center literally had just put up four walls and a roof to house Endeavor, and so it didn't have a lot of of the presentation that other sites had. But what lacked in finish was made up for with a very close-up and personal experience. Endeavor was set up in landing configuration, wheels down, allowing us to literally walk under and (almost) touch the tiles. Connecting rooms held several related exhibits of the wheels, seats, toilet, and a touching video installation showing all space shuttle missions simultaneously until they faded into the sky, with the notable exception of Challenger STS-51 as the only mission which remained in clear blue sky. As our first shuttle, it was very memorable and began a lot of really good lessons with our kids.

Shortly after returning from California, a flight sale popped up to Washington D.C.'s DCA airport over Memorial Day weekend, which was perfect for a long weekend getaway. Discovery is on display at the Steve F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles Airport in Virginia and replaced Enterprise, which was moved to New York. This exhibit was a bit more challenging to access, but paired well with a return visit to Washington D.C. The center was known for holding a large assortment of unique aircraft including a Blackbird and an Air France Concorde, both of which would be prime exhibits in other museums. Entering the museum, Discovery is an ominous figure in the background, well positioned facing the entrance for a very unique view down the length of the shuttle. Since the room had previously held a shuttle exhibit, the lighting was already perfected and allowed for the best photography. A mock-up of the Hubble Space Telescope and a Canadarm also introduced us to the working aspect of the shuttle, which will be expanded on later.

Our next shuttle, Atlantis, was to open at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Complex in Cape Canaveral just before Independence Day. I planned on visiting Florida some time in the Fall when airfares dropped due to a slow travel season, but an unplanned vacation window opened up over the 4th of July week which allowed us enough time to drive to Florida. All hotels were already booked (refundable, of course!) when a nearly-last minute good sale from Dallas to Miami caught my attention. Driving 6 hours each way (to Austin-Dallas, then Miami-Cape Canaveral) sure beats 18 hours in my book, so we got a few bonus days in Miami.

Kennedy Center was an attraction by itself, and very expensive. I saved some of the expense by buying a single annual pass in advance, which gave free parking ($10), and discounted tickets for the rest of the family. The center was a great place for learning about launches of all kinds, from Mercury to the future Orion missions. Atlantis had it's own building with lots of exhibits and presentations including a really good video experience showcasing the engineering talent behind the Shuttles. The final video was simply breathtaking--the image fading out to show Atlantis behind the screen as it rolls up created a lot of suspense and excitement. Atlantis is presented in action - a nearly 45 degree banked view with its bay doors open, Canadarm reaching out for space. This was a unique presentation and showed the shuttle as only an Astronaut could see it in space. As home to the launch command center, there was also a very good free launch simulator exhibit, and we toured the various launch pads used through NASA's long history.

Most people forget about Enterprise since it never actually flew in space. However, it was very important in developing the shuttle program and was used for flight and landing tests, including being dropped from the SCA during live landing tests. Enterprise is on display at the Intrepid Air & Space Museum in Manhatten, and so we were excited to return to New York. I purchased flights to New York over Labor Day 2013 weekend only a week after our visit to the Houston Air Show in 2012, and before I found out that Enterprise was damaged by the storm that week. We were very lucky that the exhibit reopened before our visit 5 months later. Enterprise is held on the deck of an aircraft carrier and is presented along with a good history of all 5 shuttles. The kids noticed that Enterprise was displayed with a tail cone over where the engines would normally be, which provided a good opportunity to reinforce that landing the shuttle was like landing a large building with short wings and no engine - exactly what Enterprise was designed to simulate.

11 months after the Houston Air Show, we returned to Johnson Space Center in Houston to see the newly named Independence. Now, Independence is a true mock-up, designed exclusively for display at Kennedy Space Center before Atlantis stole the spot light and Independence was ferried across the Gulf to JSC. Independence is slated to be installed on top of SCA 905 as an educational exhibit about the shuttle program that will allow visitors to enter both the 747 and the shuttle. However, the opening date of 2015 didn't exactly fit within our year plan, so our visit here was to finish out the shuttle tour where it began. Johnson Space Center does have a really interesting exhibit that allows you to walk inside the living areas of a shuttle, and they really focus on living and working in space. This is fitting since JSC is the flight command center (Kennedy is launch command). We got to see how the shuttles were used as a workhorse to launch and build all kinds of satellites and the International Space Station. Looking forward in time, we learned that future launches to the ISC will be handled by private companies, and that NASA is moving forward with Orion and exploring beyond our own orbit. We even got to see the newly opened command center for future Orion missions. As a grown up kid, it still made me want to work at NASA!

---