Allard Beutel
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-867-2468
allard.beutel@nasa.gov
RELEASE: 56-10
SANTA LOOKS TO FINAL RENDEZVOUS WITH NASA'S SPACE SHUTTLES
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Santa Claus is expected to make an
unforgettable flyby of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida this
Christmas Eve to see the three space shuttles as they are prepared
for their final missions.
NASA granted the jolly ol' elf and his nine reindeer permission to fly
over various Kennedy sites, including the Shuttle Landing Facility,
the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), and orbiter processing
facilities (OPF) where Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis are being
readied for launch.
The VAB is considered to be one of the few structures outside the
North Pole that is big enough to hold Santa's giant sack of toys.
Reaching 525 feet into the Florida Space Coast sky and covering eight
acres, the VAB could hold more than 129 million typical toys.
Inside the VAB, Discovery's external fuel tank is being evaluated to
make sure there are no cracks in 21-foot-long support beams, called
stringers, on the outside of the tank's intertank region, before
launching on the STS-133 mission to the International Space Station.
Santa's leading reindeer, Rudolph, might even pick up some tips on
how to spray foam insulation onto his coat, and nose, for future
out-of-this-world, gift-giving journeys.
Mr. Claus also can sneak a peek inside Discovery's payload bay to
check out a small shuttle replica, made entirely of LEGO building
blocks. The toy shuttle is the beginning of a three-year partnership
between NASA and the LEGO Group, and is meant to spark children's
interest in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM.
Also going up with Discovery is a human-like robot called R2, which is
short for Robonaut 2. The robot vaguely resembles "Eve" from the
Disney movie "Wall-E" and is equipped with humanlike hands and arms
and stereo vision to help astronauts with tasks aboard the orbiting
laboratory.
Next, St. Nick can drop by OPF-2 to get an up-close view of Endeavour,
which is being processed for the final scheduled shuttle mission,
STS-134. He also can get a look at Endeavour's payload by stopping
off at the Space Station Processing Facility where the Alpha Magnetic
Spectrometer-2, or AMS, is undergoing testing. The AMS will measure
cosmic rays as they move through space and is expected to unlock more
answers to the structure of the universe while raising more questions
after it is installed on the outside of the space station next year.
Comet and Cupid could also pick up some horsepower tips from Atlantis,
which just got its three main engines installed this month -- the
last planned space shuttle main engine installation before the Space
Shuttle Program retires in 2011.
And as is tradition, Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility will be
available for Santa and his reindeer crew if they would like to make
one last "touch-and-snow" while it is still an active space shuttle
runway.
For up-to-date information on the final space shuttle missions, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/shuttleFor more information about NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/kennedy
