The parts for a full-size space shuttle mockup are now about a city block closer to being reassembled and restored for public display.
The City of Downey in California began relocating the winged orbiter "Inspiration" from a maintenance yard — where it has sat in pieces for more than a decade — to a nearby facility on Thursday (Oct. 17). The move, which attracted a crowd of spectators, is the first step toward exhibiting the model at the Columbia Memorial Space Center in the years to come.
"I had a dream that I would pull a space shuttle with a golf cart down the street... and [now it has] happened," said Ben Dickow, president and executive director of the Columbia Memorial Space Center. "There are going to be some kids who walk through this thing when it's out on display ... and a spark is going to go off and they're going to become an engineer or a scientist or a lawyer or a poet. These kind of objects tied to where they are brings out the best in people, and that's what we're trying to do here."
