Gallery: Get Inside the Replica That Trained Every Shuttle Astronaut
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*The Full Fuselage Trainer lacks wings, but was used to train every shuttle astronaut that flew into space.*
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*Visitors are able to visit the payload bay area where a replica of an Inertial Upper Stage rocket booster is suspended as if just deployed. A replica of the Hubble Space Telescope is in the background.*
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*The FFT includes mock main engines as well as orbit maneuvering engines. The tail section houses an informational area.*
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*Visitors lucky enough to enter the crew compartments will have to squeeze through the same size main hatch as was found on the actual orbiters.*
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*The orbiter toilet is just inside the door to the mid-deck. Decades of astronauts crawling in and out of the FFT left their boot marks on the well-worn hatch entry.*
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*The mid-deck on the FFT is an exact replica of the real thing, complete with sleep stations. This is where astronauts not on the flight deck would sit on the flights to and from orbit.*
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*The Museum of Flight's Mike Bush makes his way from the mid-deck towards the payload bay area.*
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*The flight deck is a replica of an orbiter, though the FFT never did get the upgrades, including glass panel displays. The commander (CDR) sits in the left seat and the pilot (PLT) sits in the right seat. The trainer was left just as it was after the last crew used it for training before STS-135.*
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*The flight controls weren't used for flight simulations, but the well-worn control stick shows astronauts used every bit of the FFT for familiarization and training.*
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*With a complex machine comes a complex set of switches. These switches to the commander's left are just a small sampling of the hundreds found on the flight deck. The switch guards minimize the chance a switch is thrown accidentally by floating debris or astronauts.*
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*Appropriately, a checklist left from the final crew training goes through possible failures for the final stage of the flight immediately prior to landing.*
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*A dial on the main panel allows the commander to switch between different abort modes during the ascent. Up until about four minutes after launch the "return to launch site" is a likely scenario. If an RTLS abort is not needed, or the orbiter is past the point where it can return to Florida, a "transoceanic abort landing" means the crew will land somewhere in Europe or Africa. If the desired orbit cannot be reached, but a lower orbit is possible, the "abort to orbit" option is chosen. Of these three abort modes, only ATO was used (on STS-51F).*
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*Showing astronauts have a good sense of humor, a small label beneath the attitude indicator shows the FFT is placarded against inverted spins below 500 feet.*
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*A window at the aft end of the flight deck overlooks the cargo bay area. Here the on-orbit pilot would maneuver the orbiter. Immediately to the left is where the payload handler would train for maneuvering the robotic arm.*
