Space shuttle trainer to arrive at museum

Associated Press

DAYTON

A long-awaited NASA space shuttle trainer is expected to arrive next week at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in southwest Ohio.

Workers have been preparing for the shuttle’s crew compartment trainer that will arrive on a transport aircraft, the Dayton Daily News reported.

The trainer was one of three that astronauts trained in to prepare for space shuttle missions.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration will load the trainer on the “Super Guppy,” a whale-shaped turboprop aircraft that has hauled International Space Station components from Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The trainer was kept in Johnson Space Center’s Space Vehicle Mockup Facility for more than 30 years.

Museum aircraft restoration workers will rearrange military aircraft in the museum’s Cold War Gallery, where the crew compartment trainer will be displayed until a new hangar is built, museum spokeswoman Sarah Swan said.

She said museum visitors will be able to view the trainer in the gallery, but it will take time to prepare the exhibit.

The Air Force museum has not yet hired a contractor to build a payload bay and tail section assembly as part of the exhibit, she said. Congress has set aside $3 million for the project.