The Space Shuttle Columbia
On the 1st of February 2003 the Space Shuttle Columbia tragically broke up on re-entry killing all seven astronauts on board.
However, here it is, seemingly unscathed in a Canadian field!
It turns out that is actually a full-scale model of Columbia at the “Great Island Science and Adventure Park”. It’s claimed that this is one of only such six replicas1 and the only that claims (rather insensitively) to let you experience “how the astronauts lived”.
But it’s doubtful that the experience will be very authentic, as this replica wasn’t built from any designs, instead being based on a 1/72 plastic scale model kit and a “large number of books”.
Further information on the Science park homepage2.
Thanks to Karl M S.
I took some ground level shots:...”
Cool…another “rocket” for the Visible Rockets collection:
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php/Cat/0/Number/626220
Also, see the Space Atlas which includes placemarks for all kinds of cool space sites:
http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2006/10/space_atlas_for_goog.html
There is a full-scale half model (only the left side of the space craft from nose to tail) inside the lobby of the Kansas Cosmosphere (http://www.cosmo.org/), an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institute, in Hutchinson, Kansas. The ticket booth and gift shop are located beneath its body and a stair way climbs up onto the left wing to the Future Astronaut Training Program classrooms located within its fuselage on the second floor. You can barely see it in the right side of the photo on this page: http://www.cosmo.org/museum/
Here’s another shuttle replica at an amusement park north of Chicago.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth.
The park is called Six Flags Great America.
Love all the random bits of waterslide kicking about at Six flags! Like some sort of giant water-slide kit.
I was about to say the same
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Anyone for Rollercoast Tycoon?
One of the others is at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Placemark: Here it is / Google Earth.
Quite a remote place to establish a “Great Island Science and Adventure Park”, I would say. But the people over there have an eye for detail: if, at the end of the road you find out it is a dead end, you can at least turn around: Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Of course they could also put a sign at the beginning…
In Huntsville, AL there’s another replica that was used to test road clearances and fits within structures - Space Shuttle Pathfinder.
Not sure if that’s the type replica you were referring to though. It’s only on display, visitors can’t enter it or anything.
Huntsville one: Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Unluckily this “home made beauty” is below tree canopies.
http://academiacajander.blogspot.com/2006/03/encuentros-en-la-tercera-fase.html
There’s a second model/mock-up at Kennedy - here: Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Why not have one built for you?
http://www.spacetoys.com/proddetail.php?prod=RFS13
You even get free shipping!
There is a scaled-down (approximately 1/3 size?) model that was presumably used for wind-tunnel testing parked right next to the giant wind-tunnel at the NASA-Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. Parked nearby are an F-104, and a U-2 (or more precisely, one of NASA’s ER-2’s), and I believe a Harrier jump-jet.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
According to A Field Guide to American Spacecraft, http://www.americanspacecraft.com , there are six full size, complete models of a space shuttle orbiter. They are:
1) Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, KSC, FL - Explorer
Walkthrough model
2) Astronaut Hall of Fame, Titusville, FL - Shuttle to Tomorrow
Theater with ‘Space Camp’ style flight deck
3) Six Flags Great America, Gurnee, IL - America
Outside of Imax theater
4) Great Adventure, Prince Edward Island, Canada - Columbia
Dorm facilities
5) Space World, Kitakyushu City, Japan - Discovery
On full stack, upright
6) (No longer on display) - Ambassador
Traveling exhibit
Pathfinder at the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL may be included on the list (instead of Ambassador), but it is an engineering artifact as opposed to a display model, which all the others are. There are also several partial models, such as the ones at the Cosmosphere in Kansas or Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.
I’ve included ‘See it on Google Maps’ buttons for most of the rockets and spacecraft displayed outdoors.