Space Shuttle Prototypes, Mock-ups and other Models

a lotta high tech concrete

MichaelStephenWills

Here are some thoughts on various physical representations of the iconic Space Shuttle we encountered during our travels.

Vision

Dr. Maxime “Max” Faget joined NASA in 1958, where he headed the group that designed America’s first manned spacecraft, the Mercury capsule. In 1969, Dr. Faget was the director of engineering and development at NASA. On April 1, 1969, Dr. Max Faget tossed this balsa wood toy toward his team of engineers hard at work landing a man on the moon. During this time Dr. Faget’s team also began creating a revolutionary space vehicle for NASA. “We’re going to build America’s next spacecraft. And it’s going to launch like a spacecraft. It’s going to land like a plane.” –text from Kennedy Space Center display, see following.

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By Daderot – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67242046

Mock-up on fire

The Space Shuttle life size model still in use for fire training at Station #2 at the Shuttle Landing Facility.

Two Inspirations

On display next to the Shuttle Landing Facility

April 29, 2016 – Almost five years after NASA’s last space shuttle landed in Florida, an orbiter returned to the runway at the Kennedy Space Center. The model orbiter “Inspiration” was rolled out to Kennedy’s Shuttle Landing Facility on Wednesday (April 27), where it will be rebuilt into a traveling exhibit. The full-scale mockup was previously on display at the now-former location of the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in Titusville. LVX System, which acquired the 122-foot-long (37 meter) shuttle replica from NASA, moved the Inspiration from the Hall to a work yard in January. The company, which has an agreement with NASA to study visual light communication for deep space missions, intends to use the space shuttle as a vehicle for both educational outreach and marketing. “Over the past four months, work has been done to bolster the shuttle’s structure and aesthetics in preparation for the move this week, an LVX spokesperson said.” – from the “Collect Space” web site

The “Inspiration” model of my photograph, from our 2018 Shuttle Landing Facility visit, is a second Space Shuttle mock-up built by Kennedy Space Center carpenters from a rocket booster body.

Happy Birthday

Three birthday cakes Pam Wills created with input from grandson Kayvon. He helped to decorate the cakes. Featured is the Cape Canaveral lighthouse with launch sites, Kennedy Space Center launch site 39A with the shuttle and rockets. Foreground, in partial view is a tableau of the 1969 moon landing.

Copyright 2022 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved.

6 thoughts on “Space Shuttle Prototypes, Mock-ups and other Models”

  1. Those cakes are terrific! You reminded me of the day ‘our’ space shuttle came home. When I went to look, I found it was a decade ago — time does fly. You can see some of the photos of the event here. It was quite a day, and great fun.

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    1. A fun essay. I noticed the name was missing from the shuttle side. What happened was the shuttle was renamed “Independence” before transport to Texas, the name removed before loading onto the barge. So, the shuttle that arrived at Clear Lake was, indeed, the Independence.

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      1. And now I see that shuttle regularly, since I often travel NASA Parkway on my way to or from work. It’s clearly visible from the road, and I’ve seen tourists having their photos taken with it in the background.

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