First, I'd like to thank MikeJ for making this incredible tour a reality. This is NASA's VIP Tour that offers just a peek inside the incredible world of NASA. We toured inside the following areas: The Orbiter Preparations Facility, here they prepare the orbiter for it's next mission. The Vehicle Assembly Building. This is where all the components of the shuttle are attached to each other. While here we learned that the "Shuttle" is not the spaceship but rather the entire package that launches. The Orbiter, the actual spaceship, the External Tank that provides fuel to the Orbiters three main engines, and the two Solid Rocket Boosters when all assembled is called the Shuttle. We toured the International Space Station Facility. Here all the many different pieces and modules are test and packaged in lager containers that are then loaded onto the Orbiter. See went to the landing area where the shuttle lands after a mission and we went out to Launch Pad 39A and saw the Shuttle waiting to launch at 2:38am est on Tuesday, March 11, 2008.
Under the Orbiter Atlantis Those are the famous Ceramic Tiles that protect the ship during re-entry.
This is where all the orbiters are taken after returning from space to get prepared for the next mission. You can't see but small patches of the Orbiter because of the cocoon of scaffolding that holds all the test and repair equipment. These are the only pictures of the many I took that you can see something resembling the spacecraft.
In Front of the nose of Atlantis
This is the Lab Module for the Japanese Section that is schedule for May delivery to the ISS. The storeroom was launched on Endeavour and will be parked until this module arrives then they will be attached to the station. They couldn't launch them together because there was no more room in the cargo bay because of Dextre the Robotic arm that needed to go up.
This piece is the window assembly that is scheduled to be launched in 2009 or 2010, one of the last pieces of the ISS the Shuttle will deliver before being decommissioned.
At 2:38am March 11 the Shuttle Endeavour roared into the early morning sky and the experience is indescribable. The light from the Solid Rocket Boosters is so bright the night was turned into day and roar of the engines vibrates your entire body. Very impressive. This will be the last night launch of a Shuttle before they are retired in 2010.
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