posted 12-29-2011 09:09 AM               

Retired shuttle simulator to 'fly' again at Texas A&M

NASA's long-running space shuttle program came to its end in 2011, but thanks to a recently signed agreement between the space agency and a Texas university, one of the winged spacecraft's iconic cockpits will continue to "fly."

The Shuttle Motion Simulator (SMS), which for more than three decades exposed astronauts to the sights, sounds, and motions they'd experience when they launched and landed on the real orbiters, is being moved 100 miles from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston to Texas A&M University in College Station. Once there, the hydraulically maneuvered platform will resume work as a simulator...

posted 02-26-2013 12:58 PM               

Now that NASA's space shuttle program has ended, relics from the program's 40-year history are scattered across the United States. The Shuttle Mission Simulator, or SMS, will find a new home at Texas A&M University.

The simulator has trained 355 astronauts for 135 missions and will be the only large piece of equipment from the NASA space shuttle program that will remain in Texas. The Department of Aerospace Engineering is spearheading the effort to move the fully operational simulator to Texas A&M for researchers, the public and students of all ages to use for many years to come.

The simulator is expected to open to the public in summer 2013.