Last Power-Up of the Flight Deck of Space Shuttle Endeavour in May 2012 The flight deck of Space Shuttle Endeavour was powered up for the final time in early May 2012 to complete decommissioning activities for museum display. Endeavour was powered down on May 11, 2012 and all power to the flight deck was terminated for the last time in history. Credit: Ken Kremer

At 9:58 a.m. this morning (Friday May 11), technicians unplugged Space Shuttle Endeavour marking the final power down of NASAs last powered orbiter and termination of all power flowing to the flight deck. Today, Endeavour was euthanized. The flight deck went dark for the last time as Endeavour is being prepped inside Orbiter Processing Facility-2 (OPF-2) for final departure from the Kennedy Space Center later this year and display at her final resting place in Los Angeles.

As Endeavour was powered back up this past week for one final time to carry out decommissioning and safing activities, a tiny media group was invited to crawl inside and photographically record the flight deck as a living spaceship for the last time in history. Ken Kremer and Mike Deep were honored to receive a NASA invitation and to represent Universe Today and we share our photos of Endeavours last flight deck power-up here.

Flight Deck of Space Shuttle Endeavour Powered up for the final time. Credit: Mike Deep

For me, standing on the astronauts flight deck was like being transported to the bridge of the Starship Enterprise but this was real, not science fiction. I was at last standing on the Starship Endeavour and this was the closest I ever felt to being in space. The only thing better is being in orbit.

The blue display screens used by the Shuttle Commander and Pilot were real, lit and vividly moving before my eyes, dials were active and shining and multitudes of critical gauges lined the cabin all over from front to back, left to right , top to bottom.

Flight Deck of Space Shuttle Endeavour Powered up for the final time. Shuttle Commander seat at left, Shuttle Pilot seat at right. Credit: Ken Kremer

Endeavour was the youngest in NASAs fleet of three surviving orbiters and designated as vehicle OV-105. She flew 25 missions over a spaceflight career that spanned 19 years from the inaugural flight in 1992 to the final flight in 2011 to deliver the dark matter hunting Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) to the International Space Station (ISS). Altogether, Endeavour spent 299 days in space, orbited the Earth 4671 times and traveled over 197 million kilometers (123 million mi).

Endeavours power termination on May 11, 2012 comes almost exactly one year since her final launch on the 16 day long STS-134 mission on May 16, 2011. Since then technicians have been removing hazardous materials and propellants from the orbiters hydraulic and fuel lines and thoroughly cleansing Endeavour to make it safe for museum display to the general public. The power must be on to drain and purge the toxic materials.

Flight Deck of Space Shuttle Endeavour. Pilot seat. Credit: Mike Deep

See the original post here:

Endeavour Unplugged – Last Picture Show from the Flight Deck of a Living Space Shuttle Orbiter