Collectspace has a fun article about the prep work for upcoming move of the Shuttle Enterprise from Dulles to TBD, with lots of pictures, including a few looking in.

I've never seen any interior shots of ov-101, so this was a treat. unfortunately none of the flight deck or cargo bay, but heh its something.

Makes me sad that the day is coming no more launches (and I have yet to get to one), and also sad that it may be along time b4 we can launch our own astronauts as per new policy.

Enjoy!

http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-031510a.html

They should take Enterprise to the National Museum of the USAF, at Wright-Pat in Dayton, OH

Quoting KC135TopBoom (Reply 1): They should take Enterprise to the National Museum of the USAF, at Wright-Pat in Dayton, OH

The USAF is angling for either Atlantis or Endeavour. The issue they are running into is how to get an orbiter from the runway to the museum. From what I have been told, they will either have to resurface one of the closed runways, don't know which one, but there is a question as to whether the shuttle transport aircraft can land on it due to its length. If they land at the main runway, they will have to devise a plan on how to tow it across base. Both options are very expensive.

Wouldn't it be fun to perform one more glide landing from the nasa 747 to land at Wright-Patterson? Enterprise couldn't do it, but Atlantis or Endeavor could. Do the final safety maintenance there.

Quoting Oroka (Reply 3): Wouldn't it be fun to perform one more glide landing from the nasa 747 to land at Wright-Patterson? Enterprise couldn't do it, but Atlantis or Endeavor could. Do the final safety maintenance there.

Fun, yes, but impossible.

1) Orbiter could not land anywhere close to safely on the old Wright-Patt runway
2) New flight software would have to be written and certified
3) New ALT procedures would have to be written and certified
4) SCA doesn't have the relevant hardware anymore
5) Deservicing away from an OPF would be extremely prohibitively expensive, laborious, dangerous and time-consuming
6) etc etc.

It'd just be easier to land the last STS flight to its museum. And that's not going to happen for another huge list of reasons...except maybe if KSC gets an orbiter and they display her in the OPF...

I hate to be a killjoy. It's actually kind of interesting coming up with reasons why it wouldn't work.

Quoting JBirdAV8r (Reply 4): except maybe if KSC gets an orbiter and they display her in the OPF

That is a great idea. I got a tour of Atlantis's OPF while she was in there and it was a really good way to look all around the orbiter. If they could not do the display at Kennedy it would be nice if they could also transfer the interior fittings of the OPF to the museum that gets an orbiter.

I'm sure there are reasons that would prevent it, but...

How about on top of the An-225?
Could that use a more "challenged" runway than the NASA 747 shuttle carriers?
Could differing attachment points be fixed with a custom made adapter of some sort?

Quoting JBirdAV8r (Reply 4): 2) New flight software would have to be written and certified

That right there = about $10-15M of taxpayer's money...

Quoting fsnuffer (Reply 2):

Can't one of the shuttle transporter trucks be C5'd in, and then move her? Has to be taken off the SCA, could do that retract the gear and then truck it over.

Quoting nycbjr (Reply 8): Can't one of the shuttle transporter trucks be C5'd in, and then move her? Has to be taken off the SCA, could do that retract the gear and then truck it over.

I suspect some disassembly (obstacles or shuttle, your pick) would be required for overhead clearance. The XB-70 was towed over back in the day however some new overpasses have been constructed since then. IIRC the XB-70 had rudders removed for the trip.

Courtesy: NMUSAF

Direct from the Government RFI - "The Orbiters will not be disassembled for transportation or storage" so it would have to be clearing the route.

http://www.dgmarket.com/tenders/np-notice.do~4817033

Quoting fsnuffer (Reply 10): Direct from the Government RFI - "The Orbiters will not be disassembled for transportation or storage" so it would have to be clearing the route.

I suspect NASA will differentiate between items which were intended for removal, OMS Pods/doors/etc, and structural items not intended to be removed, wings/crew compartment, when applying this portion of the RFI.