Shuttle Stack Tour: Samuel Oschin Air and Space Gallery, California Science Center

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1.5 LU/HSW

Description:

The 180,000sf Samuel Oschin Air and Space Gallery is under construction in Exposition Park. When completed it will house over 150 exhibits celebrating the history of air and space travel, most notably the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Endeavour, and the supporting Shuttle Stack components, are all authentic and will be displayed in a vertical, launch-ready position, as it sat at the Kennedy Space Center before launching out of earth’s atmosphere.  Tour led by the project Structural Engineer focusing on engineering solutions to some of this unique projects’ challenges.

Learning Objectives:

• Base isolation of Shuttle stack: Attendees will learn about seismic base isolation, specifically triple-friction pendulum isolators, and how they were necessary to lower the forces on the Shuttle Stack exhibit from earthquakes to less than the forces on the Stack when it was launched from earth’s surface and out of the atmosphere.
• Shuttle Hall Enclosure: Attendees will learn about the high performance, large volume structure enclosing the Shuttle Stack and how it is being constructed around the Shuttle Stack exhibit and learn about the optimization studies that established efficient geometry to minimize volume/area and lower the cost of the enclosure.
• Design and Engineering: Attendees will hear how the Owner, Architect and Engineers worked together to design the Gallery Building exhibit space for flexibility.
• Design and Engineering: Attendees will learn about the engineering design and construction of the 160’ tall, cantilevered steel braced frame Gantry for the occupied exhibit with cantilevered viewing platforms to observe the Shuttle at different heights.

NOTE:

PPE (hard hat, boots, reflective vest, eye protection) is required

Parking is not provided: Parking is available at the Science Center for a fee of $20, street metered parking, or take the Metro Line to Exposition Park (recommended)

Learn more about the Shuttle Stack and the California Science Center

Read about the Endeavor’s final journey

Thank you to ARUP for providing this tour to our members!