Former NASA astronaut Tom Jones says having his Space Shuttle Atlantis on display at the Kennedy Space Center, now surrounded by state of the art spaceflight simulations, allows him to share his experience with many visitors in a way words never could.
He spoke to Epoch Times about the center’s exhibit in Cape Canaveral, Fla.: “I get to visit my spaceship there and get to share my experiences with the people who are visiting the Atlantis Space Shuttle in a way that I can’t do just in the pages of a book or in an interview. … It’s really an empty experience when you can’t share it with others.”
The $100-million, 90,000-square-foot Atlantis Exhibit recreates astronaut training for visitors while bringing the beauty of space to Earth. It includes control simulations, a digital backdrop showing the orbital sunrise, and even a space potty (just for show).
Jones recalled his astronaut training: “Surprisingly, mentally, you would actually be in orbit even though you knew you were in a building on the ground training.” He said the simulations experienced by visitors at the Center give them a good idea of what it’s actually like up there.
Visitors also see what it’s like to float through space as they crawl through a 22-foot-long clear tube suspended 25 feet in the air.
Jones described the orbital sunrise, displayed in all its splendor on an LED screen at the Space Center: “You go from black planet and black sky ... to seeing this faint glow of robin’s egg blue on the horizon. That color transforms to a golden orange as the sun comes closer to rising. You get a hint of that brilliant yellow-white as the sun actually comes up above the atmosphere. [Then] the atmosphere transforms it into rainbow colors. ...
“So at the end of that, you go from orange, to gold, to brilliant yellow-white, and to pure white, and then it’s so intense you have to look away. Even sunglasses won’t protect your eyes, ... there’s no atmosphere to filter that. So it literally ... brings tears to your eyes—some of those are physical, some of those are emotional.”
This extraordinary process occurs in about 30 seconds, 16 times a day.
Jones said the exhibit could inspire the next generation of space explorers. He first visited the center when he was 15 years old, where he saw the moon ships being built.
The prospects for future explorers are much greater. Not only could government missions make it to Mars, but also the whole realm could open further to private exploration. Like airplanes, space shuttles will rapidly become a fairly common mode of transportation, predicts Jones.
“It’s no longer going to be the province of just government explorers, like I was lucky enough to be, it’s going to be independent entrepreneurs and private astronauts who are going to be making a lot of discoveries and developments out there.”
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