![]() Attendees will see it arrive by barge to Johnson Space Center’s dock on Clear Lake. “The bulkhead has been removed, so when you walk in, you’re standing in the cockpit, between two couches that the astronauts ride into space on.” Shuttlebration is a weekend event marking the debut of this impressive piece of machinery. “You’re actually able to go inside of the shuttle,” Allen said. And the recent acquisition from the Kennedy Space Center of a full-scale replica space shuttle will most likely only boost those numbers. Space Center Houston, the official visitors center of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, draws about 750,000 people annually, according to Richard Allen, president and chief executive of the visitors center. The shuttle program may be over, but the final frontier continues to draw interest. Here’s our super select guide to the things you absolutely can’t afford to miss. We scoured the state in search of the top events and offerings, from A Tribute to Elvis in Fort Worth and Flaco Jimenez in Houston to the Lone Star Uke Fest and a King Ranch photo exhibit. Anderson said the cockpit is the size of the interior of an average family sedan, with the front half taken up by ejection seats and flight controls, the back-right taken up by a toilet with “blue juice” in it, and the back-left holding a sleeping bag or a blow-up mattress and a few other creature comforts.Throw your plans out the window. Keep in mind that unlike fighter pilots, who usually fly a handful of hours at a time, a B-2 mission might last 24 or 40 hours as the bomber travels from Missouri to the other side of the world and back again. That’s kind of the controlled chaos.” A B-2 Spirit pilot performs preflight checks in the cockpit of a stealth bomber at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, J(Tech. “You’re talking on the radios before the fight, you’re sending emails for updates on target sets and threats, you’re changing your game plan, you’re relaying that to the fighters. The cockpit is “controlled chaos in the sense of everyone’s typing as fast as they can,” Anderson said, referring to the laptops B-2 pilots plug into their aircraft to stay in touch with commanders back home. “But when you start bringing in a 4- or 8-ship and you’re in the 400+ number … how do I pick 400 points over the space that I want to drop on?” The B-2 Spirit of South Carolina flies during a training mission over Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., Feb. Nick “Wolf” Anderson on the Fighter Pilot Podcast. ![]() “It’s somewhat easy to allocate 12 bombs and go ‘what are my 12 highest priorities,’” when working with smaller aircraft like fighters, said B-2 pilot Maj. That opens up a lot of possibilities for war planners, but sorting them out can be a headache. Precision-guided munitions allow a bomber to fly to a single point and release several weapons which then shoot off in different directions to hit their targets. ![]() Those bombs could be 500-pound unguided ‘dumb bombs’ or precision-guided munitions, long-range cruise missiles, nuclear bombs and much more. The B-2 can take off from its home in the middle of the country at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, take on fuel from airborne tankers while crossing oceans, then slip past enemy radar to drop up to nearly 60,000 pounds of bombs on the most critical targets. ![]() Air Force)Īll that maintenance is worth it though, because the B-2 is one of the most fearsome arrows in America’s quiver, and stealth is the reason why it’s so scary. Senior Airman Quentin Hoffman, 131st Maintenance Squadron low observable production controller, inspects the surface of a B-2 Spirit at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., Feb.
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