Discovering Space Shuttle Atlantis: She’s Not What You Think
– By Dave Myers, architect
I was a member of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex’s Space Shuttle Atlantis design team. I was fortunate to see the project from its conception through completion. In the course of three years, I transitioned from a casual space enthusiast to a walking, talking, space shuttle encyclopedia.
I will never forget the day I met a space shuttle. We were designing the home of one of these amazing spacecraft. We had been reading books, working with 3D computer models, and had reviewed hundreds of pictures. I grew up around airplanes, but nothing prepared me for what I encountered.
When they tell you you’re going to see a space shuttle, you expect to see the whole thing. This was not the case. We entered a room filled with steel structures, hoses, wires, and unidentifiable machines. It took us a moment to realize we were in the Space Shuttle Hangar and this maze of stuff was covering what we wanted to see. We caught a glimpse of some tiles, maybe a wing, possibly a landing gear: all of it covered in equipment. She was very difficult to see. Then we walked under it.
This was no airplane. We were standing under a space ship. 20,000 square tiles came into view. They covered the curving bottom: each one burned, streaked, and worn from 32 fiery reentries. We were given permission to climb the gantry to the upper levels where we could get glimpses of the nose, payload bay, and engines. We climbed all over the structure, so close that we could touch it, and were always reminded that touching it could mean irreparable damage to the spacecraft and her crew.
She was not covered in a smooth coating like one might expect from watching her blast into space; instead, she was covered in what I can only describe as dirty, stained pot-holders! They call these pot holders “blankets.” Each blanket’s handmade and stamped with a serial number. It’s amazing to think that someone made this by hand – each one of these space ships was hand made by thousands of dedicated workers. We began our day expecting an airplane, and what we got was a one-of-a-kind, handmade space ship.
It was an emotional day for all of us, but three things made an impression that day:
1. Standing just inches away from the cockpit windows, realizing that very soon astronauts would be guiding this ship through space and back was undeniably cool.
2. The words “Atlantis” emblazoned under the cockpit windows somehow made this personal – kind of like meeting a rock star.
3. And finally, the words United States on the fuselage and wings gave us chills. This spacecraft personifies America like few things have ever done.
When we left the Kennedy Space Center that day, it reconfirmed what we needed to do. We had to get anyone who wanted to visit this amazing ship so close that they could almost touch it and make her fly one last time.
