New Personal Project - Space Shuttle and Boosters

When I was a kid I used to love putting together models. I did all kinds of models, from cars, to military airplanes and helicopters, to ships. Some of my favorites were a 1957 Ford pickup, an A-10 Thunderbolt, and an Apache helicopter. As a kid I had lots of time to build them over weekends, after school, or over holidays. These days, between work, family, and more work, it's hard to find time to have any kind of hobby.

It's been at least a few years since my last model, which was the USS Kitty Hawk air craft carrier. That was a pretty good challenge. My new project is something I thought I would never see as historic relic and in museums. I figured they would be flying forever with newer ones getting built every couple of decades. I watched the first Space Shuttle, Columbia, take off in April 1981. I saw Challenger land at Edwards AFB in person and also watched its final take off live on TV in 1986. The last time I saw a Shuttle live was Columbia disintegrating across the sky that early morning in February 2003. It took over a year to launch a new mission after that incident. It has been truly unfortunate to see our space program now on indefinite hold.

When I brought this home and showed the kids, they knew what it was, because they have a toy shuttle and launch pad, but didn't really know why mine had the tanks attached. I explained the Space Shuttle history, briefly of course. I'm talking to a 5 and 8 year old. Their eyes glaze quickly. At least I got the chance initially to tell them about the shuttle and what it was. As I build it, I'm sure I'll have many opportunities to tell them about the historical significance and the achievement it showed we're capable of.

To me the Space Shuttle was a wonder of the world. It was a space craft capable launch, re-entry, and re-use. It was capable handling speeds in the tens of thousands miles per hour, launch satellites weighing several tons, and land on a pin point spot in FL or CA at about160mph from a starting speed of Mach 25 and an altitude of 400,000 feet, all without the use engines once inside the Earth's atmosphere. It was truly an engineering feat.

I will be posting pictures as I make progress. This will take some time to complete.