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  Google Street View: 'space shuttle' at KSC (2012)

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Author Topic:   Google Street View: 'space shuttle' at KSC (2012)
Paul78zephyr
Member

Posts: 675
From: Hudson, MA
Registered: Jul 2005

posted 10-30-2013 01:43 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Paul78zephyr     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
What is the 'space shuttle' vehicle visible in 'street view' at Google maps here:

The 'space shuttle' appears to be at the dock at the turning basin and has no vehicle 'name' on the fuselage. Clearly not a real space shuttle but what is it (and why)?

Ben
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Posts: 1896
From: Cape Canaveral, FL
Registered: May 2000

posted 10-30-2013 03:52 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Ben   Click Here to Email Ben     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
This was shuttle mockup Explorer (now Independence in Texas) before it sailed to Houston.

JBoe
Member

Posts: 960
From: Churchton, MD
Registered: Oct 2012

posted 10-30-2013 04:11 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for JBoe   Click Here to Email JBoe     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Wasn't there another one named Pathfinder?

onesmallstep
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Posts: 1310
From: Staten Island, New York USA
Registered: Nov 2007

posted 10-30-2013 05:00 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for onesmallstep   Click Here to Email onesmallstep     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Pathfinder still exists — it's exhibited at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL with two SRBs and an ET as a shuttle 'stack' at an angle. Given the honorary number OV-098, it was used as a test article to prove the cranes, structures and other shuttle support hardware worked. Built in 1977, it was retired and put in storage until Japanese investors asked for it to be exhibited at a space expo there in 1983-84. It was returned to the US and has resided in Huntsville ever since.

It was refurbished several years ago to repair corrosion that leaked in thru the fiberglass and wood construction used to make it more 'shuttle-like' for exhibit in Japan.

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