Mock-up of space orbiter will go to BC museum

Monday, April 12, 1999 | 10:23 a.m.

The original mock-up of the NASA orbiter, used to train astronauts and size shuttle cargo, will be loaned indefinitely to the Nevada Air & Space Educational Center in Boulder City.

Formerly the Fisher Air & Space Educational Center, the facility designed to generate math and science interest among Clark County students will offer an aerospace museum, planetarium, Challenger Learning Center and space camp.

The orbiter currently is housed at the Boeing Aerospace Division in California and will be moved to the center later this year for its Learning Labs Building.

"It's going to be a great addition to the center and to Nevada," Scott Fisher, president of the Fisher Museum Foundation, said. "It's the original prototype. It will be a great visual aid. You'll be able to see the confined space the astronauts have to live in."

The center is under construction at the 42-acre site of the old Boulder City Airport. Once complete, an annual flow of 12,000 to 14,000 students from the Clark County School District are expected to visit the site, Fisher said. Museums, interactive exhibits and simulated moonscapes will be open to tourists.

The Boys and Girls Club and the Challenger Learning Center, a franchise of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education of Washington, D.C., are expected to be completed next year.

Funding for the center is based on grants and private and corporate donations. The center was one of eight applicants for the NASA orbiter mock-up.

"We've definitely sparked a major interest," Fisher said.