![]() The ET was also the largest single-piece of spaceflight hardware / rocket component to stay intact as it flew into space just briefly (except for this one) - because all subsequent built ET's were flown on a space shuttle mission and were all destroyed after a short 8.5 minute ride into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). 600lbs of paint to was needed to cover the huge ET x a cost of $50K/lb payload = $30 Million Dollars Savings per launch! And since they were destroyed after 8.5 minutes of flight, it was deemed a huge waste and the tanks were left unpainted ever since, exposing the sprayed on bare "orange" foam insulation. However, for the first two missions, it was not orange. It was originally painted the typical NASA white - but was stopped being painted to save weight because of the cost of the added paint weight: ca. It stood out because of it's contrasting bright orange color and could be seen from miles away. The "ET" was the largest and most iconic component of the "Shuttle Transportation System", commonly referred to as the "STS", as it towered over everything else that was attached to it. The LARGEST artifact WOD acquired was the first, flight designed, and last existing, fully intact Space Shuttle "Heavy Height" External (fuel) Tank (aka the" ET") for all to see and touch along with two of its huge transporters. ![]() The actual KSC launch tower "white room" with signatures of every crew member that passed through it (and many major political figures) the complete Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) cargo bay Hubble Space Telescope (HST) training modules various program vehicles such as the only ONE Astronaut Crew Transporter used to transport every astronaut from the KSC O&C Building to the launch pad during the program both ET transporters, SRB parachutes, SRB motor igniters donated by ATK (a.k.a Morton-Thiokol: Originally Alliant Techsystems) the company who built the entire SRB system, the SRB top nose cone and bottom nozzle aft skirt which were also collected and many more items - none of which you can find at any other museum in the world, and are all now considered "artifacts" by NASA since the end of the program in 2011. These historical items have been saved for permanent display at the WOD's museum before they were sent off to some government "boneyard" or doomed for scrap.Ĭlick on link to to see some of the larger pieces of hardware acquired>: Wings of Dreams (WOD) has acquired and is preserving hundreds of Shuttle program items the smallest to the literally the largest, which include different shuttle parts (such as landing gear struts & tires, OMS engines, crew seats, mid-deck galley parts, etc.) mission ground control computer terminal stations and training components from Johnson Space Center (JSC) such as emergency crew egress trainers, including various one-of-a-kind NASA space flight hardware items to include the full-size Shuttle training simulators (SMS/GNC) The Wings of Dreams museum is working very hard to specifically preserve as much history as they can of NASA's 30 year (1981-2011) Space Shuttle program by salvaging as many hardware items from multiple NASA facilities across the US (now referred to as "artifacts" by NASA) as they can for all current & future generations to come & see. Located only 150 miles north of Kennedy Space Center (KSC), home of all former Space Shuttle Assembly & Launch Operations, as well as all other previous NASA manned (and unmanned) rocket launch programs since the late 1950's, making it an ideal location to receive many of Florida KSC's artifacts so close to their original home. a small Florida 501(c)(3) non-profit air & space museum, based at Keystone Heights, Florida Airport (K42J) - previously Keystone Army Airfield during WWII (one of the largest staging airfields used for troop deployment to Europe during WWII) and is located on the south border of Florida's US Army National Guard Headquarters - "Camp Blanding". I would like to acknowledge the extraordinary efforts of Wings of Dreams (WOD), Inc. I WILL BE RE-POSTING ALL OF THEM AS SOON AS I CAN RE-ACQUIRE THE ORIGINAL PHOTOS. ![]() PLEASE NOTE: THAT DURING A RECENT LINKEDIN WEB-SITE "UPDATE" - ALL (25) UNIQUE PHOTOS THAT ACCOMPANIED THIS ARTICLE "SOMEHOW" GO REMOVED (LOST).
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