![]() Therefore sitting in a shuttle pilot's chair and personally contemplating the thrill of human space flight may actually be in your future. The retired space shuttles are now being sent to museums, with Endeavour being sent to California Space Center in Los Angeles, California, Atlantis to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on Merritt Island, Florida, and Discovery to the Udvar-Hazy Annex of the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia. 1992 Orbit Altitude: 163 nautical miles Orbit Inclination: 57 degrees Miles Traveled: 2.9 million Crew Members Image above: STS-42 Crew photo with Commander Ronald J. The numerous panels and displays allowed the computer-controlled orbiter to enter the top of Earth's atmosphere at greater than the speed of sound and - just thirty minutes later - land on a runway like an airplane. Space Shuttle: Discovery Launch Pad: 39A Launch Weight: 243,396 pounds. Pictured above is the flight deck of Space Shuttle Endeavour, the youngest shuttle and the second to last ever launched. What would it be like to fly a space shuttle? Although the last of NASA's space shuttles has now been retired, it is still fun to contemplate sitting at the controls of one of the humanity's most sophisticated machines. Image Credit & Copyright: Ben Cooper (Launch Photography), Spaceflight Now The four planets continue to hug the eastern horizon at dawn throughout the month, while Endeavour is now scheduled to make its final approach to planet Earth on June 1. Below and left, Mars almost fades into the twilight glow. Innermost planet Mercury is below Venus, to the right. Jupiter is highest, near the top of the frame, but even the solar sytem's ruling gas giant is outshone by brilliant Venus near picture center. Scattered by planet Earth's dense atmosphere, floodlight beams play over the launch pad, glancing skyward toward the celestial beacons. (May 8, 1992) The space shuttle Endeavour roared aloft tonight on its inaugural flight, carrying six men and a woman on a rescue mission to save a 150 million communications satellite stranded in space for more than two years. Shining through the early morning twilight four planets were also poised above the eastern horizon, a moving scene captured here from across the Banana River at the center's Saturn V VIP viewing site. Newest Shuttle, Endeavour, Begins First Mission. Its final launch, on mission STS-134 to the International Space Station, was only hours away. When dawn broke over Kennedy Space Center on Monday, May 16, the space shuttle orbiter Endeavour still stood on pad 39A. Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel Herron (Atlanta Astronomy Club) Nineteen years earlier, on May 16th, 1992, Endeavour landed at Edwards Air Force Base, concluding its first mission, STS-49.
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