Space Shuttle Pathfinder
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Space_Shuttle_Pathfinder.jpg
Pathfinder
The Space Shuttle Orbiter Pathfinder (unofficial Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-098) is a 75-ton Space Shuttle mock-up made of steel. It was initially built and used by NASA to practise handling and moving of actual Space Shuttles (as made possible by the mock-up's similarity in size, weight and shape). This allowed facilities to be tested without requiring the use of Enterprise.
Later, a Japanese organisation funded the refurbishment of the steel mock-up to more closely resemble an actual Space Shuttle and named it Pathfinder, for purposes of showing it in a Tokyo, Japan space exhibition. Pathfinder has since been returned to the U.S. and is presently on display at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
It is displayed as part of a complete Shuttle stack, mounted on the MPTA-ET external tank which was used for propulsion tests with MPTA-098, and with two prototype Advanced Solid Rocket Booster casings, developed after the Challenger accident but never put into production.
External links
- Orbiter Vehicles (http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/resources/orbiters/orbiters.html)
- Shuttle Test Article Pathfinder (http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/resources/orbiters/pathfinder.html)de:Space Shuttle Pathfinder