"We are doing this now because it is a relatively relaxed period of time," Phillips said. Even though Endeavour will not go vertical for several more years, the CSC decided to do it now, in part because of Jenkins' and his team's availability. Jenkins, who worked for 20 years on the shuttle program, consulted with and recruited several of his former orbiter colleagues to carry out the cargo installation. "We are very grateful to the Smithsonian for allowing us to acquire them and their continuing support." "In an extremely unusual move, the Smithsonian allowed us to remove several parts from Discovery at the National Air and Space Museum to support our payload installation," Dennis Jenkins, the CSC's project director for Endeavour's future display, said. Opening the bay doors and installing the payloads took a month of advance planning, and required equipment from both NASA and the Smithsonian. "We have had replicated an external airlock, a Canadarm, and also some connecting tunnels go from the orbiter's mid-deck entry down to the flown Spacehab," Phillips described. To complete the payload bay's configuration, the CSC had several replica parts produced to the same specifications as the authentic hardware that flew in space. ![]() The CSC has configured the unit with a replica front piece to represent the single module flown on STS-118. ![]() The module placed in Endeavour's cargo bay on Thursday also flew in space on eight shuttle missions, although always connected with another Spacehab to form a double module. The CSC exhibits the Spacehab module that Morgan flew with on Endeavour, but it is remaining on display next to the orbiter so visitors can look inside. Special NASA equipment was needed to open and support the opening of the retired space shuttle Endeavour's cargo bay doors at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.
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