Rick Douglas Husband was an American astronaut and fighter pilot. He traveled into space twice: as Pilot of STS-96 and Commander of STS-107. He and the rest of the crew of STS-107 were killed when Columbia disintegrated during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. Husband is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
Eileen Marie Collins is a retired NASA astronaut and a retired United States Air Force colonel. A former military instructor and test pilot, Collins was the first female pilot and first female commander of a Space Shuttle. She was awarded several medals for her work. Colonel Collins has logged 38 days 8 hours and 20 minutes in outer space. Collins retired on May 1, 2006, to pursue private interests, including service as a board member of USAA.
The Northrop T-38 Talon is a two-seat, twinjet supersonic jet trainer. It was the world's first supersonic trainer and is also the most produced. The T-38 remains in service as of 2018 in several air forces.
The Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum is an aviation museum which displays a number of military and civilian aircraft and spacecraft, most notably, the Hughes H-4 Hercules, popularly known as the Spruce Goose. The museum is located in McMinnville, Oregon, across the street from the former headquarters of Evergreen International Aviation. Oregon Route 18 separates the museum from the company operations and McMinnville Municipal Airport (KMMV). An IMAX theater opened in 2007, and a second exhibit hall focusing on the Titan II ICBM and space technology opened in 2008.
The Museum of Flight is a private non-profit air and space museum in the northwest United States. It is located at the southern end of King County International Airport, in the city of Tukwila, just south of Seattle. It was established in 1965 and is fully accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. As the largest private air and space museum in the world, it also hosts the largest K-12 educational programs in the world.
Stanley David Griggs was a United States Navy officer and a NASA astronaut. He is credited with conducting the first unscheduled extra-vehicular activity of the space program during Space Shuttle mission STS-51-D. Griggs was killed when the vintage World War II-era training aircraft he was piloting – a North American AT-6D – crashed near Earle, Arkansas.
The term Link Trainer, also known as the "Blue box" and "Pilot Trainer" is commonly used to refer to a series of flight simulators produced between the early 1930s and early 1950s by the Link Aviation Devices, Inc, founded and headed by Ed Link, based on technology he pioneered in 1929 at his family's business in Binghamton, New York. During World War II, they were used as a key pilot training aid by almost every combatant nation.
William Francis Readdy is a former Associate Administrator of the Office of Space Flight, at NASA Headquarters.
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105 part of a programme known as the Spiral , was a manned test vehicle to explore low-speed handling and landing. It was a visible result of a Soviet project to create an orbital spaceplane. This was originally conceived in response to the American Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar military space project and may have been influenced by contemporary manned lifting body research being conducted by NASA's Flight Research Center in California, USA. The MiG 105 was nicknamed "Lapot" Russian: лапоть, or bast shoe, for the shape of its nose.
The Shuttle Training Aircraft (STA) was a NASA training vehicle that duplicated the Space Shuttle's approach profile and handling qualities, allowing Space Shuttle pilots to simulate Shuttle landings under controlled conditions before attempting the task on board the orbiter. The STA was also flown to assess weather conditions just prior to Space Shuttle launches and landings.
The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is the visitor center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It features exhibits and displays, historic spacecraft and memorabilia, shows, two IMAX theaters, and a range of bus tours of the spaceport. "Space Shuttle Atlantis" is home to the real Space Shuttle Atlantis orbiter and the Shuttle Launch Experience, a simulated ride into space. The center also provides astronaut training experiences, including a multi-axial chair and Mars Base simulator. The visitor complex also has daily presentations from a veteran NASA astronaut. A bus tour, included with admission, encompasses the separate Apollo/Saturn V Center. There were 1.7 million visitors to the visitor complex in 2016.
The Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum (WOTR) is located on the former Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado, United States. The museum preserves the history of Lowry AFB's operations from 1938 to 1994 in its collections, archives, and research library. Features of the museum's collection include the USAF's B-1A Lancer and B-52 Stratofortress bombers and many other military and general aviation aircraft.
Lee Joseph "Bru" Archambault is an American test pilot and former NASA astronaut. He has logged over 4,250 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft. Archambault is married with three children. His hobbies include bicycling, weightlifting, and playing ice hockey. Archambault has received numerous awards and honors throughout his life. He has also flown two Space Shuttle missions, as pilot of STS-117 in 2007 and as commander of STS-119 in 2009. Archambault left NASA in 2013 after a 15-year career with the agency in order to become a test pilot for Sierra Nevada Corporation on their Dream Chaser orbital spaceplane project.
Silent Wings Museum, "The Legacy of The World War II Glider Pilots," is a museum in Lubbock, Texas. The museum is housed in the former tower and terminal building of Lubbock's airport during the 1950s, and 1960s.
The Shuttle Mission Simulator (SMS) consisted of two simulators in Building 5 and one simulator in Building 35 of Johnson Space Center. The fixed-base simulators included high-fidelity mockups of the flight deck of a Space Shuttle, as well as a low-fidelity mockup of the middeck. The facility in Building 5 was known as the Fixed Base Simulator (FBS), while the facility in Building 35 was known as the GNS. The motion-base simulator consisted of the forward part of the flight deck of the Space Shuttle. It utilized a six-axis hexapod motion system with an additional extended pitch axis to provide motion cuing for all phases of flight.
The Colorado Aviation Historical Society (CAHS) is located in Denver, Colorado and was founded in 1966. CAHS home is at Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum. The Society acquires, restores, preserves and provides for public display, aircraft and other objects, documents, items and things of present or historical interest or value in connection with the development and history of aviation in the State of Colorado. CAHS host many aviation events and participates in many of Colorado's air shows and fly-ins. The Society has regular membership meetings and publishes a quarterly history journal. The Society owns an Alexander Eaglerock Model 24 Long Wings which is on loan and display at the Pueblo Weisbrod Aircraft Museum, Pueblo, Colorado.
The Spirit of Flight Center (SOF), is operated by the non-profit Spirit of Flight Foundation, a 501(C)(3) organization based in Westminster, Colorado. The Spirit of Flight collection, founded by Gordon R. Page, displays limited exhibits on modern and historic aviation, from Colorado's aviation history to a Messerschmitt Bf109-F fighter from Russia. Also on display at SOF is a full size bronze statue of Amelia Earhart. SOF is located in Westminster, Colorado near Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport which allows for pilots to fly in and be shuttled to the facility.
The Stafford Air & Space Museum is located in Weatherford, Oklahoma, United States. The museum was named a Smithsonian Affiliate in June 2010. The museum features exhibits about aviation, space exploration and rocketry, and a collection of over 20 historic aircraft. Displays include artifacts from the Space Shuttle program, Hubble Space Telescope and the Mir Space Station, a Moon rock, a Titan II missile, a Mark 6 re-entry vehicle, and the Gemini 6A spacecraft.
The Texas Air & Space Museum is an aviation museum located near Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport in Amarillo, Texas. The museum displays civilian and military aircraft as well as a wide range of air and space artifacts.
