Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center Dennis R. Jenkins, Project - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center Dennis R. Jenkins, Project Director

Our Mission To stimulate curiosity and inspire science To stimulate curiosity and inspire learning in everyone science learning in everyone by creating fun, memorable experiences, because we by creating fun, value science as an indispensable tool for understanding our world, accessibility and memorable inclusiveness, and enriching people’s lives experiences

Master Plan | California Science Center Phase I New Parking Facilities Phase II: Ecosystems 1998 2003 2010 2004 2019 2004 Wallis Annenberg Building for Phase III: Samuel Oschin Science Center School Science Learning and Innovation Air and Space Center

ENDEAVOUR STACK

Space Shuttle Orbiters | On Display • On 4 January 2004, George W. Bush directed NASA retire the space shuttle no later than 2010 (it took a bit longer) • In 2008, NASA began soliciting information on transferring the remaining program assets to museums • Ultimately, 13 institutions made the short list to receive an orbiter • Dr. Ken Phillips, the Curator of Aerospace Sciences, authored the proposal that resulted in the California Science Center scoring highest in the NASA evaluation

Space Shuttle Orbiters | On Display • On 12 April 2011, Charlie Bolden announced: • OV-101 would go to the Intrepid Air, Sea, and Space Museum in New York • OV-103 would go to the National Air and Space Museum at the Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles • OV-104 would go to the KSC Visitor Complex in Florida • OV-105 would go to the California Science Center in Los Angeles

Space Shuttle Orbiters| Display Concepts • Although each of the display sites selected different concepts for their exhibits, three of them are of the orbiter by itself • OV-101 – On its landing gear (eventually might be displayed as flared for landing with a replica tailcone) • OV-103 – On its landing gear • OV-104 – Mounted on pedestals with payload bay doors open to simulate on-orbit activities • OV-105 – Vertical stack with one payload bay door open

Space Shuttle Orbiters| Getting Them to the Museums • Moving the four orbiters represented an interesting challenge • OV-103 was easy; land at Dulles and tow on an existing taxiway to the Udvar-Hazy Center; much pomp and circumstance • OV-101 was a challenge; load at Dulles, fly to JFK, off-load, and then take a barge through Jamaica Bay and up the Hudson to the Intrepid • OV-104 was an easy move but a difficult display. Move down mostly existing roads at KSC to the new Orbiter Home. Then jack 60 feet in the air and tilt one wing down 43.21 degrees • OV-105 was by far the most difficult; 15 miles through the street of Los Angeles

Master Plan | Phase III: Rendering 1992

Project Milestones | OV-105 Ferry Flight

Project Milestones | OV-105 Ferry Flight

Project Milestones | OV-105 Ferry Flight

Project Milestones | OV-105 Arrival at LAX

Project Milestones | OV-105 Off-Load at LAX

Project Milestones | OV-105 Off-Load at LAX

Project Milestones | Storage in United Hangar at LAX

Project Milestones | Three Nights and Three Days

Project Milestones | Three Nights and Three Days

Project Milestones | Three Nights and Three Days

Project Milestones | Temporary Samuel Oschin Pavilion

Project Milestones | Temporary Samuel Oschin Pavilion

Project Milestones | Payloads • The final display will have one payload bay door open so guests can see into the payload bay from various levels of the replica gantry and its glass elevator. • Astrotech donated the two remaining Spacehab modules to the Science Center, which decided to configure Endeavour largely as STS-118, the flight of Barbara Morgan. • During late 2014, we opened the payload bay doors and installed a replica SRMS, a replica airlock/ODS, a replica tunnel adapter, a flown Spacehab (FU3), and the ICC-VLD (although this was not flown on STS-118, it is similar to the ESP-3 that was flown).

Project Milestones | Payloads • The payload bay doors are very lightweight composite • They were not designed to open in 1-g without assistance • The orbiter processing facilities were designed with the necessary equipment to support the doors • In fact, the payload bay doors had only been opened twice outside an OPF or the Palmdale assembly facility • Once in the Edwards AFB weight and balance hangar • For the final display of Atlantis at the KSC Visitor Complex • The same team that opened in the OV-104 doors also opened the OV-105 doors for the payload installation

Project Milestones | Payloads

Project Milestones | Payloads

Project Milestones | Payloads

Project Milestones | Payloads

Project Milestones | Payloads

Project Milestones | Open Bays 9/10 Showing Systems

Project Milestones | Elevon Actuator

Project Milestones | Elevon Actuator

Project Milestones | Concept Evolution • As initially envisioned, the Endeavour stack would use the ET-STA and Frankenstein boosters long displayed at KSC • A detailed inspection showed none of the components were structurally sound given their long exposure to the Florida environment • The Science Center passed on ET-STA but accepted the boosters as set dressing • NASA donated an aft skirt, but it was later found to be unusable

Project Milestones | Concept Evolution • Therefore, the plan changed to using a replica external tank supported internally by 80 tons of steel • The solid rocket boosters would also be structural steel internally but would use the former KSC Visitor Complex boosters as skin • This presented some interesting engineering challenges to ensure the replica steel structure reacted loads in the same way as the normal stack components to prevent damage to Endeavour during seismic events • It also meant that structurally equivalent attach hardware needed to be developed to support Endeavour • This last item was overcome when the Science Center convinced NASA to release the unused attach hardware from the only remaining flight external tank (ET-94)

Project Milestones | Concept Evolution • However, creating a replica external tank presented some interesting issues by itself. • The only high-fidelity tank made to-date was the new tank commissioned by the KSC Visitor Complex to sit in front of the new Atlantis exhibit. • Although it looks okay from a distance, it is obviously a replica when you are within 50 feet of it. For the new Endeavour exhibit, guests will be within 8 feet of the vertical stack, necessitating a better solution. • In addition, the KSC Visitor Complex stack did not need to support an orbiter or react to seismic events (although it did need to withstand hurricanes).

KLSC Visitor Complex Replica ET and SRBs

Project Milestones | Concept Evolution • The obvious answer was to get a real external tank, except, of course, that the ET was the one expendable component of the space shuttle system. None of the flight tanks ever came home (in one piece) • Three test tanks still existed: ET-MPTA at the US Space and Rocket Center; ET-STA, which had already been rejected for structural reasons; and ET-GVTA, which was sitting, disassembled, at Michoud • But there was one remaining flight tank: ET-94. This deferred-build lightweight tank had been built for Columbia science missions but had not been used before the orbiter was lost during STS-107 (using ET-93) • Being a lightweight tank, it was too heavy for ISS missions • So it sat at Michoud • After a lot of negotiations, NASA donated the tank to the Science Center for use on the Endeavour stack • Now to get it from Michoud to Los Angeles

ET-94 with Disassembled ET-GVTA at Michoud

ET-GVTA after February 2017 Michoud Tornado

Project Milestones | ET-94 • The problem was, the tank was at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans; the Science Center is in Los Angeles • Thus began a journey that ultimately took six weeks

Project Milestones | ET-94

Project Milestones | ET-94

Project Milestones | ET-94

Project Milestones | ET-94

Project Milestones | ET-94

Project Milestones | ET-94

Project Milestones | ET-94

Project Milestones | ET-94

Project Milestones | ET-94

Project Milestones | ET-94

Project Milestones | ET-94

Project Milestones | ET-94

Project Milestones | Solid Rocket Boosters • So that solved the ET problem • But how to support the stack since the two SRBs the Science Center had acquired from KSC were of questionable structural integrity • The boosters were a mix of filament-wound cases from the abortive attempt to set up a launch site at Vandenberg AFB and flown steel cases • But they had sat outside in the Florida environment for more than 20 years and there was no good data on the effects of exposure on the FWC cases • There were also no models or analysis of the dynamic behavior of a mix of FWC and steel cases • Fortunately, NASA and Orbital ATK stepped up. NASA donated flight qualified aft skirts and frustums while ATK donated two sets of steel motor cases they had purchased for the stillborn Liberty launch vehicle