posted 06-10-2021 06:16 PM               

Space shuttle simulator returns to NASA to be restored for display

A space shuttle has returned to NASA's Johnson Space Center almost a decade after it was last "flown."

The shuttle, or more specifically, a simulator of the winged spacecraft's flight deck, which provided astronauts with a sense of the motion they would experience during their launch and landing, arrived back in Houston nine years after a plan to put it back into use fell through. A volunteer team is now working to prepare the Motion Base Simulator (or as it was also called, the Shuttle Motion Simulator) for its permanent display at the Lone Star Flight Museum located at nearby Ellington Airport.

posted 12-10-2021 10:44 AM               

Brainerd said there was no practical way the computer complex that was needed to run the simulator again could be reassembled. The electronics are now obsolete. And the museum would not have the resources to maintain and operate the simulator. Much of the restoration work has therefore focused on cleaning the simulator, reinstalling removed items, and ensuring that the static display looks and sounds just as it did during training simulations.

"Our big project was replacing all the incandescent lighting in the cockpit with LEDs, plus purchasing new power supplies for the lighting," Brainerd said. "This was not as easy as it might sound. The internal illumination for all those switch panels was accomplished via 1,600 tiny incandescent bulbs that were soldered onto printed circuit boards on the backs of the panels. Once we found LEDs of the proper size and rating to fit into the available space, we had to unsolder the 1,600 bulbs and solder 1,600 LEDs in their place." ...

The final restoration step is painting the simulator, scheduled to happen early next year, and building exhibits to put on display alongside it.

"We're kind of in the home stretch," Dunbar said. "We hope to have it in place at the museum in April, in time to celebrate the anniversary of the first shuttle flight."

The Lone Star Flight Museum still needs funding to complete the displays for the simulator exhibit. Donations to support this final step of restoration, earmarked to the "SMS-MB restoration," can be made here.

posted 04-03-2022 04:43 PM               

Moved the restored SMS-MB (space shuttle simulator) from NASA JSC to Ellington for final painting. Will move to Lone Star Flight Museum on April 12 — 41st anniversary of STS-1.

posted 04-12-2022 03:45 PM               

NASA motion base shuttle simulator lands at museum for static display

A retired NASA space shuttle simulator that was used to prepare astronauts for the motion of the vehicle in flight has moved again, this time to enter its new museum home.

The Shuttle Mission Simulator-Motion Base (SMS-MB), which was "flown" by every crew as part of their training at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, arrived on Tuesday (April 12) at the Lone Star Flight Museum at Ellington Airport to go on static display. Towed to the facility on wheels, the roll-in coincided with the 41st anniversary of STS-1, the first space shuttle mission, which launched in 1981.

posted 06-02-2022 10:48 PM               

Representatives from Texas A&M and the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station will attend the 4 p.m. ceremony, including retired Aggie astronaut Mike Fossum, who is the chief operating officer at Texas A&M University at Galveston and vice president at Texas A&M. Leadership from the Lone Star Flight Museum and NASA's Johnson Space Center will also be present for the official transfer of ownership and signing of documents.