Real life thread

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
This thread is about hte US/NASA Space Shuttle model I built with two of my granddaughters in 1/144 scale.

Here's a video while building with the two granddaughters who heled:


Here's a video of the build:


This is a 1/144 scale model of the US Space Shuttle and its entire launch facility which includes the large launch gantry and the structure used to do final preparations to the Shuttle cargo which swings around to cover the shuttle before launch.

The model is by Revel and its is a great model. Lots of parts and moderate in terms of difficulty.

We built it with the shuttle Discovery on the pad. We built it to recognize and in tribute to the programs as a whole, and particularly in memory of the Challenger and the Columbia and their crews (7 each) who were lost. The Challenger in 1986 coming apart while rising through the atmosphere, and the Columbia in 2003 which disintegrated while re-entering the atmosphere.

I actually was part of a remediation team that worked at Thiokol from Structural Dynamics Research (SDRC) in the late 1980s out at Thiokol regarding improvements to their program. The Challenger was lost due to the solid fuel rockets coming apart because the launch occurred when temperature and atmospheric conditions were borderline, and despite warnings, the feeling was that the launch could occur in any case.

The Columbia was lost due to a known problem with foam structures coming off of the the shuttle attachment points to its fuel structures and striking the shuttle during launch. it was felt that they were not doing damage sufficient to endanger the shuttle. In the case with the Columbia, a piece hit the left wing and apparently damaged the integrity of the heat shield tiles there, allowing hot gasses to build up.

On that morning in 2003, the left wing ultimately failed and the shuttle disintegrated. None the less, the shuttle program had 135 launches and provided immeasurable god to the space program, and to putting many invaluable satellites, telescopes, labs, experiments, and perhaps most importantly, its indispensable use in building the International Space station.

Although the Soviets tried to build a similar shuttle, they failed, launching one of their two shuttles only once for a single orbit, and remotely controlled with no cosmonauts aboard.

The US built six shuttles, one, the Enterprise purely for atmospheric testing, and the other five (Challenger, Columbia, Discovery, Endeavor, and Atlantis), having, as stated conducted 135 space launches. May we always remember and never forget the sacrifice of those fourteen crew members and their families, and the amazing contribution, despite the tragedies, that the shuttle program gave the Unites States and the world.

@bd popeye @Air Force Brat @kwaigonegin @Deino @Equation @asif iqbal @duncanidaho @siegecrossbow @SamuraiBlue @Jura @Obi Wan Russell

Pictures follow.
 
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