Shuttle On The Street
Space shuttle replica "Explorer" completes its difficult journey from KSC to Houston-->By: Ray Doughty
Updated: June 4, 2012
The shuttle replica "Explorer" finished its journey from Florida's Kennedy Space Station to the Johnson Space Center on Sunday.
Unsuccessful in landing one of the retired space shuttles, Houston got the next best thing: a replica.
The replica floated under the Kemah Bridge Friday and docked in Clear Lake before it traveled down NASA Road 1 to Johnson Space Center.
The massive structure was scheduled to arrive at the property at 9 a.m. Sunday, but logistics and road blocks caused delays.
The 122 feet tall, 78 feet wide, and 140,000 pound shuttle had a hard time traveling down narrow NASA Road 1.
"We spent about 12 months planning this and everything looks good on paper but once you get this in the streets, there's a lot that comes up," said Jack Moore, a Space Center Houston's Public Relations specialist. "There was a telephone pole that right out the shoot we realized we had to take that down and along the way we came awful close to some trees and we had to stop..pull them back and slowly made our way by."
Officials said taking the move slowly was the only way to go.
Explorer finally made its way through the main entrance at noon, just three hours behind schedule.
Unsuccessful in landing one of the retired space shuttles, Houston got the next best thing: a replica.
The replica floated under the Kemah Bridge Friday and docked in Clear Lake before it traveled down NASA Road 1 to Johnson Space Center.
The massive structure was scheduled to arrive at the property at 9 a.m. Sunday, but logistics and road blocks caused delays.
The 122 feet tall, 78 feet wide, and 140,000 pound shuttle had a hard time traveling down narrow NASA Road 1.
"We spent about 12 months planning this and everything looks good on paper but once you get this in the streets, there's a lot that comes up," said Jack Moore, a Space Center Houston's Public Relations specialist. "There was a telephone pole that right out the shoot we realized we had to take that down and along the way we came awful close to some trees and we had to stop..pull them back and slowly made our way by."
Officials said taking the move slowly was the only way to go.
Explorer finally made its way through the main entrance at noon, just three hours behind schedule.
