The Shuttle Mission Simulator

The Shuttle Mission Simulator The SMS was the only full mission capable flight simulator for the S**ce Shuttle Program. Every shu

I have gathered all the STE Land comics I could find, consolidated them into one giant pdf, and uploaded them to the Int...
09/09/2024

I have gathered all the STE Land comics I could find, consolidated them into one giant pdf, and uploaded them to the Internet Archive.

Download the file for over 2100 cartoons about daily life in the SMS as seen by the late Danny Sims.

Now all we need is for some dedicated person(s) to go through them and provide an index.

https://archive.org/download/the-maybe-complete-ste-land/The_Maybe_Complete_STE-Land.pdf

Carl made a video about the MB restoration:
12/13/2023

Carl made a video about the MB restoration:

This video shows, in narrated slideshow format, a description of one of the S**ce Shuttle flight simulators (called the Motion Base) used at the Johnson S**c...

This is from around 1985. Sent to me by a friend who worked in SMS software back then. I don't remember ever seeing this...
10/17/2023

This is from around 1985. Sent to me by a friend who worked in SMS software back then. I don't remember ever seeing this patch.

That time when Barbie flew the SMS for training so often that she got upgraded to flying Atlantis for real on STS-38 bac...
08/01/2023

That time when Barbie flew the SMS for training so often that she got upgraded to flying Atlantis for real on STS-38 back in 1989.

As it turns out, the two Barbie dolls that recently went on display at the Smithsonian are not the first to have flown into space, contrary to how they are described in the exhibit. Another Barbie made the trip 32 years earlier aboard a classified mission.

A treasure trove of early SMS photos posted by Tom Connell on the Former Singer Linkers page
05/01/2023

A treasure trove of early SMS photos posted by Tom Connell on the Former Singer Linkers page

Motion Base Dedication Event on 6/4 at the Lone Star Flight Museum!
06/01/2022

Motion Base Dedication Event on 6/4 at the Lone Star Flight Museum!

The Motion Base has finally got a forever home at the Lone Star Flight Museum.
04/13/2022

The Motion Base has finally got a forever home at the Lone Star Flight Museum.

A NASA space shuttle simulator that was used to prepare astronauts for the motion of the vehicle in flight has moved again, this time to enter its permanent new home. The Shuttle Mission Simulator-Motion Base arrived at the Lone Star Flight Museum.

The GNS, which had been at the Wings of Dreams Museum in Florida until it closed, was acquired by the team making the ne...
02/01/2022

The GNS, which had been at the Wings of Dreams Museum in Florida until it closed, was acquired by the team making the new movie "Moonfall" for production. For a while, it was a new motion base, and they got the cockpit lit and the displays working well enough to film a movie. When they were done, it was donated to the Pima Air & S**ce Museum in Arizona, where it is on display today.

Thanks for the writeup, Robert Pearlman!

In "Moonfall," director Roland Emmerich's new disaster film, a retired space shuttle plays a part in NASA's attempt to save Earth. In reality, though, it was the movie makers that came to the rescue, saving a real NASA simulator from an uncertain fate.

Writeup in Ars Technica on the current effort to fix up the Motion Base.
12/10/2021

Writeup in Ars Technica on the current effort to fix up the Motion Base.

"We hope to have it in place at the museum in April."

Special Update from Carl Brainerd and the MB Restoration Team-===============================================Friends of ...
11/12/2021

Special Update from Carl Brainerd and the MB Restoration Team-
===============================================
Friends of the SMS,

Here's a "special edition" of the SMS news. The headline is that we've basically completed the interior restoration of the Motion Base! We are only working one little discrepancy on the interior- the lighted overlay around the panel F8 landing gear talkbacks is dimmer than all the others. This isn't critical, but we will look into it. The attached photos add up to a panorama of the Crew Station interior. It's looking good.

On the exterior, we only still need to finish neatening up the wiring between the electronics cabinet and the Crew Station. This should happen next week.

After that we will be ready to move to the NASA Aircraft Operations paint shop, which is going to paint all the exterior and the Crew Station floor aft of the seats. They can't take us until January, though, so it appears that by Thanksgiving the team will be on "vacation" for a little while. After the painting, we'll just need to re-install the visual projector amplifiers around the forward enclosure. Then it should be off to the museum.

So we are nearly "there" with the restoration. The team has done a great job. An estimated 4000 hours invested so far.....

Regards,

Carl
Team Lead, MB Restoration

06/09/2021

This memo from the Committee for the Preservation of the S**ce Shuttle Simulator gives some of the history of the Motion Base restoration project.

It also explains how individuals and/or corporations can donate to the Lone Star Flight Museum and earmark the contributions to be used for the Motion Base project.

https://archive.org/download/sms-sb-restoration-request/SMS-SB%20Restoration%20Request.pdf

The Motion Base is currently in JSC Building 49 being refurbished for display by a team of volunteers.
06/07/2021

The Motion Base is currently in JSC Building 49 being refurbished for display by a team of volunteers.

I'm reposting Wayne Sweeney's video since some folks had trouble getting to it.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBrohrcsF...
06/04/2021

I'm reposting Wayne Sweeney's video since some folks had trouble getting to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBrohrcsFRE

This is the video I did of unloading and placing it in JSC building 49 ,the SMS Motion Base crew station which was delivered from Texas A&M this morning. Luc...

The Motion Base crew station and the instructor station consoles were successfully delivered to Building 49 today.The co...
06/03/2021

The Motion Base crew station and the instructor station consoles were successfully delivered to Building 49 today.

The consoles still contain "historic relics" of food ops.

The first shipment from Texas A&M to JSC of Motion Base materials arrived yesterday. Today the volunteer team started "u...
06/02/2021

The first shipment from Texas A&M to JSC of Motion Base materials arrived yesterday. Today the volunteer team started "unboxing". The crew station and the instructor station tables are planned to arrive tomorrow.

This is happening in Bldg 49 which has a very interesting history. I've driven by it 10,000 times but never knew what those twin towers were. Turns out it was a vibro-acoustic test facility for the Apollo command and service modules. Some of the giant horns are still installed in the walls.

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Houston, TX

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