Robert Pearlman is a space historian, journalist and the founder and editor of, an online publication and community devoted to space history with a particular focus on how and where space exploration intersects with pop culture. All rights reserved.Ĭ Editor, Contributor See more photographs of NASA’s quarter-scale space shuttle at .įollow on Facebook and on Twitter at collectSPACE. The quarter-scale space shuttle will remain in storage, first at the airport and then at the university until the Coca-Cola Space Science Center can raise the funds to build its new display. "Your model, the shuttle Enterprise and space shuttles Atlantis, Discovery and Endeavour encompass the most extraordinary components," wrote Robert Sherouse, transition manager in the Office of Infrastructure at NASA Headquarters, in a letter to the science center.
NASA awarded the engineering artifact to the Coca-Cola Space Science Center for its permanent display. The orbiter came to Columbus from Canada, where it was on display at the Calgary International Airport for 14 years. The scale replica was tested in a variety of configurations, including variable loading of the external tank and rocket boosters, enabling replication of the most critical stages of the shuttle's flight to space. Once you get a smaller scale, like one-tenth, then you can't even see the fasteners you have to use." The scale is chosen such that you can actually make some fasteners. "Whereas other things, like the access door to the mid-body, were replicated. they just go along for the ride," Emero continued. "We have lots of small pieces of structure, like vent doors and so forth, that are not necessary to replicate. you had to have some sense about what's important," said Don Emero, chief engineer of the space shuttle program at Rockwell (now Boeing), in a 2010 oral history. "They chose quarter-scale because that is scaled in proportion. The replica was large enough to simulate all of the primary structural elements and joints of the space shuttle, without exceeding the limitations of the available test facilities. The solution was the quarter-scale test article.
#NASA SPACE SHUTTLE MODEL FULL SIZE#
A full size mockup, Pathfinder, and a prototype, Enterprise, were used for certain trials, but neither could put the entire stack through its paces during vibration and structural load testing.