Originally posted by Nate'sTour:
How did you get shuttle pics? Is Endeavor on display???

How big does she look in person?



It's not Endeavor, it's Enterprise. Enterprise was a flightworthy-but-not-spaceworthy vehicle (fake main engines, and fiberglass rather than carbon/ceramic tiles) that was "dropped" off the top of a B-747 for approach and landing tests in the late 1970's (given that at some points of its reentry, the shuttle falls three meters for each one meter of forward travel, they kinda wanted to get some actual flight experience before sending one into space), and then was used for static fatigue testing (to verify that the shuttle structure could withstand the bending/torque moments of multiple flights). After that, Enterprise was sent to the Paris Air Show and toured the Eastern U.S. (I saw it at Dulles on the 747 carrier aircraft, maybe in 1980). It was kept in storage at Dulles for years before the opening of the new museum. There are some great photos of Enterprise and other spacecraft at http://grin.hq.nasa.gov.