Space Shuttle Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center: photos and a review of opening night, from Sawyer Rosenstein

[boingboing]

Space history is a beautiful thing. The Atlantis exhibit: 90,000 square feet, $100 million, and one precious piece of American space history. Give that to any organization and they’ll come up with something pretty cool. Give it to Delaware North, the company that runs the Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Complex, and you get one of… READ THE REST

[jeaguilar]

One of the neat differences between this display and the one of the Discovery at the Udvar-Hazy NASM is that the bay doors are open and the Canadarm is extended. According to a docent on a tour I took last month, the hinges of the payload bay doors as well as the joints of the arm were not designed to be opened unsupported in 1G.

[JohnO]

Nice photos. I visited KSC in mid-May as this exhibit was under construction. Your photos helped complete my visit!

[jerwin]

It certainly does make the Smithsonian display look rather ordinary

[awesomerobot]

I’ve been to KSC a few times, have seen a few launches too. They really do an impressive job with their displays - this was still under construction the last time I visited (to see a SpaceX launch!), but their Saturn V display is nuts.

[knox_will]

Thanks for the photos; these are great. This is a great example of how something becomes more beautiful with age–the wear and tear just makes it better. I want to go see this!

[MarkHB]

It was my pleasure and privilege to help with creating this installation; I was helping out with some 3D animation and light compositing; creating Bruce McCandless II’s EMU and MMU was, I consider, one of the high points of my 20 years of 3D animation and Visual Effects. Every once in a while I’d sit back in my seat and realise that instead of selling chocolate bars or blowing up Moon Nazis (hee hee), I was actually doing something, chipping in to help inspire the next generation of young minds, pointing them skyward.

Then I’d realise that said pressure suit would be 20 feet high, at 4K res, in front of the people who actually build them and have a bit of a panic attack over getting it right. All good fun, though… can’t wait to be able to get out to KSC and see it.