![]() ![]() The forward wall of the mid-deck is taken up by supply lockers that are used to hold things the crew needs for the mission, including snacks. ![]() Bloomfield explained that the mid-deck only becomes roomy in the microgravity environment of low earth orbit, where suddenly all the available nooks and crannies become accessible. Three adult humans-Bloomfield, my photographer Steve, and I-took up most the available space just standing around getting positioned so that Steve could take photos of us was often an exercise in shifting and elbowing. Several sections of the building were dedicated to specific training tasks-there was a life-sized SSRMS mock-up (the Space Shuttle Remote Manipulator System-the shuttle’s "arm"), for example, along with a number of other training setups. It featured the exact interior layout of an actual space shuttle, but the controls were inert and non-functional (with a few exceptions like the switches for cabin lighting).Īt the time of our tour, the SVMF featured a high-fidelity mock-up of the International Space Station and a Soyuz. The Crew Compartment Trainer II, which we toured, was such a mock-up. The mock-ups housed in the SVMF are usually "high fidelity," meaning that they closely resemble the actual vehicles and components that will be launched into space. The configuration of mock-ups in the SVMF changes with some regularity for various training tasks. Permanently mounted to ceiling rails inside the high-bay is a pair of enormous overhead cranes for moving equipment around. The T-shaped structure’s main feature is the SVMF high-bay itself, which is oriented northwest-southeast and capped at the southeast end by an enormous pair of sliding doors (used to install or remove mock-ups). The facility is located inside an enormous warehouse on the JSC campus. Further Reading The audacious rescue plan that might have saved space shuttle Columbia ![]()
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