Chicago’s Adler Planetarium didn’t get a retired NASA space shuttle on Tuesday, but it did land quite the consolation prize: A flight simulator used to train shuttle astronauts.
CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago’s Adler Planetarium didn’t get a retired NASA space shuttle on Tuesday, but it did land quite the consolation prize: A flight simulator used to train shuttle astronauts. Officials at the dome-topped facility along Lake Michigan were disappointed not to be among the museums that will get shuttles, but planned to make the simulator a centerpiece of a new exhibit on space exploration. "A shuttle would have been a game changer. It’s a national treasure," said Paul Knappenberger, the planetarium’s president. "The simulator is the next best thing." Adler was among 21 museums and centers nationwide that had put in bids for the shuttles. Shuttle Atlantis will stay in Cape Canaveral, Fla., at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Endeavour is headed to the California Science Center in Los Angeles, and Discovery’s new home will be the Smithsonian Institution’s branch in northern Virginia. The Smithsonian is giving up the prototype Enterprise, which NASA said will go to New York City’s Intrepid museum. Enterprise was used for test flights in the 1970s. The announcement came on the 30th anniversary of the first space shuttle flight in 1981. Knappenberger said he was "a little perplexed" by the choice of New York, but said the other shuttle destinations weren’t surprising. He hoped planetarium visitors would get a hands-on experience with the simulator, like being able to sit in a pilot seat. The simulator is now in use at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. After the last shuttle mission this summer, Adler staff will go to Houston and work with NASA engineers to dismantle the simulator for its move to Chicago. Ali Ali, a 9-year-old Chicagoan who was visiting the Adler Planetarium on Tuesday, and said the flight simulator will be "cool because it really feels like we’re in the space shuttle." Adler Planetarium, which opened in 1930, bills itself as the country’s first planetarium. The facility draws more than 5 million visitors each year. Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Brian Kersey)
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