Mamunti

Ok one of the opportunities “aircraft” from ebay has just arrived; this time it just one model and is a special one that I never flew in but I being inside of one of the High fidelity Replica. And because get the exact model of what i went into will be very hard, I will make and exception an put this model with the Concorde prototype to the being inside/flew in models par of the collection. Because of this, the model will have a little more of a story as with some of the first aircraft that I share.

OV-105 Space Shuttle Endeavour

As an Avgeek I was always impressed with the orbiter; and been able to visit Central Florida and Kennedy Space Center while the space shuttle programs were still running is a fond experience that I have in my memories. Funny enough, I had visit Florida and been in Orlando when a launch had taken place, but, my parents and I never went to see the lift-off live, the closest I had been to a launch was that one year that we visit Kennedy Space Center the NASA bus tour could not go to the launch sites, because well one was been occupied by Space Shuttle and have restricted access to the area; I remember at most you could see the tower at a distance and identify the Disposable external tank and one of the Solid Rocket Boosters.

But available to visit and enter in the Visitor Complex of Kennedy Space Center was a scale 1/1 High fidelity model called Space Shuttle Explorer, that you could enter and see all the details of the crew compartment and mission bay area; that is the model that I enter. After the end of Space Shuttle program and the Opening of shuttle exposition in the visitor complex (With the Atlantis as a center piece), the Explorer went to Houston, renamed Independence, and now sit on top of SCA 905 (one of the modified 747 used to transport Space shuttle).

In general right now if you want to see a space shuttle in USA you have several options:

Space capable Orbiters

• Discovery – On the Annex of the Smithsonian Space & Air Museum in DC
• Atlantis – On the visitor complex of Kennedy Space Center in FL
• Endeavour– California Science Center in LA
• Columbia & Challenger - The cockpit widows and a part of the fuselage are on expo in the memorial of the missions in the Kennedy Space Center visitor complex beside the Atlantis

No space capable orbiters but used in the program for several testing

• Enterprise – On the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in NYC (was originally in the Annex of the Smithsonian Space & Air Museum but was swap for the Discovery when that one was retired)
• Pathfinder - U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Alabama

1/1 Models

• Independence (former Explorer)- In Houston in Independence Plaza on top of SCA 905
• Inspiration – Hollow 1/1 model on the Shuttle landing facility in Florida
  (I know there are other models, but this are the only one that I know are somehow associated with NASA expo or in NASA grounds)

The Herpa Space Shuttle models in general are hard to find and goes for a high price, I found this a relative good price but without a box. I whish I have a SCA with the shuttle also in the last livery (There is also a model with the first livery), but the prices of that model are in general very high, comparable to a Singapore a380 or the NASA SOFIA 747SP.

I add a pictures of how I saw the Explorer when I went into (It is not my picture, it is a Wikipedia picture) and how it looks now (also a Wikipedia picture). ��