With the retirement of the space shuttle fleet there is a lot of underutilized space at Florida's Kennedy Space Center. So NASA is making an effort to re-purpose some of these facilities.
The first stage has been competed with the handing off of Orbiter Processing Facility-3 to The Boeing Co. The aircraft and space technology giant will use the space to manufacture and assemble its CST-100 spacecraft. This capsule is intended to be used as a ferry system to the International Space Station.
The move is expected to bring at least 550 jobs to the area by 2015, and potentially many more as Boeing looks to expand operations there.
Senator Bill Nelson (Dem-Fl.) recently commented, "just wait until you see what's coming here to the Kennedy Space Center in the future in the way of public/private partnerships."
Indeed, this is expected to be just the first phase in the new-look space program with a reliance on not only NASA designed and operated exploration vehicles, but a significant role for privates funded space endeavors.
Image Credit: NASA
Comments
Thanks for including that awesome photo. It’s hard to believe that a couple of thin, v-shaped connectors are sufficient to connect the shuttle to the foam-covered fuel tank during the stress of liftoff and flight. I have a collectible model (probably not 100% accurate) and it has these same connectors. I wonder if there are additional, more robust attachments on the real thing. Also, I would love to buy a video that documents the process of connecting the shuttle to the fuel tank (a time-lapse would be especially awesome). If anyone has seen a documentary including that, please share the title so I can look for it. Thanks.