Pathfinder is back in its "space," three and a half years after it "landed" on Earth.
An early mockup of NASA's now-retired winged orbiters, Pathfinder was returned to its position atop a space shuttle propulsion "stack" at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama on Wednesday morning (Aug. 28). The lift signaled that a multi-million-dollar restoration effort is nearing completion.
"Returning Pathfinder to the shuttle stack after an extensive restoration process is a major milestone for us," Kimberly Robinson, CEO and executive director of the Space & Rocket Center, said in a statement provided to collectSPACE. "We are so fortunate to have this emblem of a program that for 30 years and 135 flights helped launch telescopes and satellites and build the International Space Station."
Workers using two heavy-lift cranes raised Pathfinder — absent its wings and main engines — 80 feet (24 meters) off the ground to its mount atop an external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters. The horizontal display, which is at a 10-degree angle so Pathfinder appears to be climbing skyward, is one of only two such full-stack displays in the world; the other, at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, features space shuttle Endeavour.
