Detailed tour through the Space Shuttle Orbiter

Join me in this documentary walking through a Space Shuttle Orbiter 'Discovery' at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center and Orbiter trainer Independence at Space Centre Houston.

Other videos:

0:00 intro
0:45 starting at the nose
2:06 reaction control system
2:34 Shuttle Remote Manipulator System / Canadarm
2:48 delta wing
3:32 aft end and engines
6:06 landing gear
7:02 windows
7:20 entering middeck
9:04 payload bay
9:45 flight deck
#space #spacex #spaceshuttle

[newflyer]

It's great that they've kept the Orbiter in it's original condition with the partially worn skin. Nice tour Paul, as always.

[davidcole]

I remember as a child growing up in California during the 70s, my class went on a field trip to where the tiles were made. They had a display set up and would take a blow torch to the tiles and they would be unharmed. I remember learning that each tile was unique and had its own individual spot on the orbiter. Thanks for a well-researched and well- presented tour.

[saintuk]

Discovery was always my favourite vehicle. I love how they've preserved it with the "straight from orbit" look. To this day I still enjoy watching the old STS launches, especially when those SSMEs fire up, the flow dynamics are mesmerising.

[PaulStewartAviation]

Thanks for watching everyone!
I should clarify there were 6 Orbiters built but one (Enterprise OV-101) was not fitted with engines or a heat-shield. It was used for testing).
Have you seen one of these Orbiters (or trainers) in the metal? Don't forget to subscribe too as I've got heaps of videos to come once I get around to editing them! The 747 SCA, F-14, B-47, B-58, F117, F-22, YF-12, YF-23, first Boeing 747/727/737 and others!

[rickleuce]

The amount of engineering is phenomenal. The first space-worthy Space Shuttle was Columbia, which first launched in 1981. These were basically designed and built using technology from the 1970s with relatively few updates like a heads up display, a parachute, and making the external fuel tank lighter as time went on.

[goldiemusic]

Next video : Detailed tour of Titanic.

[rogerdickinson]

One of the most amazing vehicles ever made by humans.

[mcrazza]

I didn't realise just how small the command and living quarters are! Thanks for the tour, Paul!

[mildlemon]

I watched a zillion Orbiter videos before, but this was the first one to give a real impression on the size and non-roomy-ness of the crew compartment. Thank you for showing this tour!

[thatoneskierdude]

The Shuttle on re-entry would feel heat of around 10, 000+ degrees Fahrenheit from what I recall. The Tiles could not withstand that, so somehow through a bunch of brilliant scientists they figured out how fluid physics work in space. This led to the use of the shuttles smooth shape to make a boundary layer. This boundary layer was a mix of two waves that collided to form one in the front of the shuttle.

I know this stuff is old and was used on Capsules thru the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. But jeez, how did they figure all that out??

[johnsim]

Always wondered how the crew compartment was laid out, your tour answered that question! What really impressed me when I seen Enterprise on the Intrepid was how quickly they went from just managing to get something the size of a trash can in to orbit to something the size of the shuttle! The size comparison was breath taking. Very impressive engineering.

[RichardinNC]

I was a big fan of the Space Shuttle and its missions, and remember the tragedies well. I finally saw it in person in 2010 when the Enterprise was on display at Udvar Hazy. Thanks for the interior tour.

[tihspidtherekciltilc]

Watching a night launch from my deck on the coast of North Carolina in the early 2000s was the coolest thing I've witnessed in my 52 years with the homecoming or National Victory Celebration as it's called in 1991 at the Mall in DC being the other. Now I'm watching the coolest aviation channel on YouTube so thank you for that.

[MW-xbrz]

I’m a crazy fanatic of the shuttle program as well. My mom let me stay home from school to watch many of those early launches and landings live on tv.
I first saw Enterprise on display atop the SCA during a layover at our local airport once in ‘85. I saw Enterprise again in 2009 perhaps when it was on floor display at the Smithsonian. In 2010 my dreams came true as my parents and my family witnessed one of Discovery’s last launches live from the causeway at Cape Canaveral. 2022, another family trip to KSC to see Atlantis on display. And a few months ago, a short trip to Houston to see the mock orbiter displayed, mounted to the SCA there.
My wife’s sister lives outside of L.A. so I hope on our next trip we all go to see the orbiter (Endeavor?) on display at their museum.

[jwandel]

I saw space shuttle Atlantis in person less than a year ago. It was so much larger than I imagined. Thanks for the vid Paul

[guylavoie]

I went on a tour of the Kennedy Space Center in May 1981, about 3 weeks after the first flight of Columbia. I remember a demonstration of the heat shielding tiles where the guy at the front of the room would heat a cube of the the material with a handheld propane torch while talking about how light they were and didn't absorb heat. The cube would glow red. He would then put down the propane torch and almost immediately pick up the cube with his bare fingers. Great memories!

[nobodynemoq]

Although being extremely inefficient economically, very dangerous for the crews (complete lack of emergency abort system), very problematic at maintenance (inspection/replacement of all ceramic tiles, complete disassembly of engines etc.), space shuttles remain to be the sample of how genius human beings are - especially once you realize all this was designed in 70's ♥

Fun fact: The overall design of the orbiter (and the space shuttle of course), including the shape and size of the wings, was determined by a SINGLE theoretical short polar-orbit mission requested by D.O.D. that actually NEVER took place! If not this single requirement, Space Shuttle would probably be much more efficient and many issues would simply disappear...

But would they be still THAT beautiful? 😍

Loved Space Shuttles, they were the most beautiful peace of hardware that ever happened in space exploration.

Thank you for this amazing tour. Hope one day I'd be able to take my kids to the USA and show them this peace of art and technology! ☺

Have a wonderful day! 😁

[db]

Terrific addition to your video library. Thanks to you, I have a better understanding now of the Space Shuttle's working interior. I've never seen a video that's done that better. Thank you.

[Hadanelith]

The fusion of tours from multiple different displays, really helps provide all the details! I've seen the one in the Air & Space, but I've not seen the interior before, and it's really quite neat. Thanks for the tour!

[chrismoody]

I’m a geek about so many things. Always enjoyed coming to limited understanding of Earth sciences, Space sciences, history, mechanical creations in all its various forms. Really enjoyed this tour of the orbiter. Makes you ponder just how amazing it was and as we all know it’s vulnerabilities. Make me yearn for a 2.0 version to keep us exploring and learning.