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[b]Officials re-install Crew Compartment Trainer interior items at National Museum of the U.S. Air Force [/b] Officials with Team Raytheon based at Johnson Space Center's Space Vehicle Mockup Facility have teamed-up with the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force's Restoration staff to re-install interior items on the Crew Compartment Trainer (CCT-1). The interior items, which include seats, lockers and monitors, were removed and transported to the museum in advance by truck in order to reduce the weight of the CCT-1 during its flight on NASA's Super Guppy aircraft. [i][b]Above[/b]: Team Raytheon mechanical engineer Rob Evans reinstalls items inside the Crew Compartment Trainer on Sept. 6, 2012. It will take several days to repopulate the interior of the CCT.[/i] According to Team Raytheon Engineer Clayton Hamm, reinstalling the interior items on the CCT-1 has kind of been like putting together a giant puzzle. "First, you have to fully evaluate it and locate all of the pieces and then proceed in a methodical manner so that the pieces are brought into the trainer at the right time in order to make them all fit," said Hamm. "Once everything is organized, things tend to move along smoothly, but once in a while something will surprise you or require extra time to install." Assisting Hamm has been a team of restoration staff led by Restoration Specialist Nick Almeter, who has over-seen the project since the CCT-1 arrived at the museum. "Everything has come together really well, and it has been great to have the engineers from Team Raytheon and the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility here to assist us," Almeter said. "They have a wealth of knowledge about the CCT-1, so it certainly makes our job that much easier." Even after the re-installation is complete, work on the CCT-1 exhibit will continue. Plans call for the museum to build a full-scale mock-up of the payload bay and develop other new exhibits with an emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs. When completed, the CCT-1 exhibit will allow the public to look into the cockpit and mid-deck areas of a shuttle and learn how astronauts trained for their missions. These surrounding exhibits will contain additional items that NASA plans to ship to the museum, including the main/nose landing gear wheel and brake assembly; nose cap assembly; photographic equipment; primary thruster; rotational hand controller and mid-deck sleep station. Other uniform items such as an inflight jacket, cooling vest, and an in-suit drink assembly bag have already been received. Although a firm completion date for the full exhibit is yet to be determined, the CCT-1 itself, along with a display detailing future plans including a video documenting the trainer's preparation and delivery, will be available on Sept. 29.
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