Hasta La Gadget!

I’m still rather disappointed that NASA retired their Space Shuttle fleet leaving America to hitch a ride aboard foreign spacecraft to get in orbit. If you’re a fan of the Space Shuttle, you probably been following what NASA is doing with the spacecraft now that they’ve been retired. Endeavour recently took its final journey to California where will spend the remainder of its days.

The Endeavour was given to the California Science Center and made its trip there aboard its carrier aircraft, making fly-bys of several areas before arriving at Los Angeles international Airport. Once the Space Shuttle reached L.A., it made a 12-mile trek across challenging city streets to the California Science Center. Thousands of fans turned out to get a glimpse at the endeavor as a completed its historic Mission 26.

If you weren’t able to see Endeavour in person as it made its way through Los Angeles, cinematographer Matthey Givot has put together a very cool time-lapse video of the shuttle’s journey, cleverly titled Mission 26: The Big Endeavour.

I knew the Space Shuttles were big, but it really drives home how massive the spacecraft are when we see them on a typical city street.

[via CBS News]

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.

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

Filed under: Transportation, Science

Space Shuttle Atlantis hands-on: a look inside (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Oct 2012 14:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NASA and the US government may have moved on from the shuttle program, but it’s clear that the American people are still in love with our nation’s cosmic cargo planes. An estimated 20,000 people showed up at the Ames Research Center/Moffet Air Force Base in Mountain View, California this morning to see Endeavour buzz the tower. With so many folks itchin’ to see Endeavour’s farewell tour firsthand, the line to get in was lengthy, but we braved the crowds to bring you some shots of the action. Enjoy.

[Thanks to Chris Williams for helping with some of the crowd shots]

Update: Canon/RED guru and LA-based DP Vincent Laforet caught the shuttle’s final approach and landing at LAX. You’ll find the slow-motion clip, shot at 5K resolution on a RED Epic at 96 frames-per-second with an 800mm Canon f/5.6 lens, just past the break.

Continue reading Vizualized: Bay Area bids adieu to Space Shuttle Endeavour (update: video)

Filed under: Transportation

Vizualized: Bay Area bids adieu to Space Shuttle Endeavour (update: video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Sep 2012 18:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Space Shuttle Endeavour has undertaken its final journey today, blasting off not into space but to its new retirement home at the Dryden Flight Research Center in California. The NASA craft hitched a ride on the back of a modified Boeing 747, the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), and conducted low-level flyovers across a number of important sites including NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Houston.

Endeavour flew as low as 1,500 feet – with the full permission of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), naturally – over crowds of well-wishers, including the home of retired astronaut Mark Kelly. The Tucson, Arizona, fly-by was a special request by Kelly, ABC News reports, who was the last person to command a mission aboard the shuttle.

Although Endeavour’s final resting place was a hotly contested matter, California does have some history with the shuttle. It was built in Downey by Rockwell International, Space reports, a company later absorbed into Boeing, and manufactured to replace Challenger after the 1986 accident.

During its operation service with NASA, Endeavour flew 25 missions and a total of 123m space miles. It is expected to complete its sightseeing tour and land at the Dryden Flight Research Center at approximately noon PDT today.

NASA’s Endeavour begins final journey is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Toyota Motor Sales USA has announced that its Tundra full-size pickup is scheduled to be the to the vehicle that drags the space shuttle Endeavour on the final leg of its journey to the California Science Center on October 13. The California Science Center will be the final resting place for the Endeavour. I mentioned previously that the space shuttle’s trip down some Los Angeles streets required the removal of old-growth trees, angering some Los Angeles residents.

Toyota says that the Tundra will tow the space shuttle the last quarter-mile to its final destination. This is a significant load for the Tundra to pull. Toyota uses some creative math and rounds the load the Tundra will drag down the road to 300,000 pounds. The precise weight of the load is actually about 7500 pounds less than that at 292,500 pounds.

The space shuttle weighs 150,000 pounds; the overland transporter weighs 27,500 pounds; beams weigh 44,500 pounds, bolster beams add another 13,500 pounds, and the dollies weigh 52,000 pounds. There’s an additional 5000 pounds of miscellaneous hardware. The Toyota vehicle that will pull the load is a 2012 Tundra CrewMax 1/2-ton truck with no modifications made to increase towing capacity or power output.

The vehicle has a 5.7 L V-8 engine and is rated for a maximum towing capacity of 10,000 pounds. That means the truck will be towing roughly 282,000 pounds over its maximum rated capacity. At least, it only has to go a quarter-mile towing the load. I wonder if the footage of the truck towing the space shuttle will end up in a Toyota commercial.

Stock Toyota Tundra to tow space shuttle Endeavor on the last leg of its final journey is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.