Pathfinder Orbiter

Pathfinder is a NASA Space Shuttle Orbiter test article built by Marshall Space Flight Center in 1977 to practice lifting and handling future Orbiter vehicles. Made of scrap rocket parts, steel beams, and wood, the mockup initially closely matched the Orbiter’s size, shape, and weight characteristics, but it lacked engines and flight systems because it was never intended to fly. It measured 120 feet long, 47 feet high, with a 78-foot wingspan, and weighed 153,000 pounds. When first built, Pathfinder had a plain, mostly white exterior. In 1982, after fulfilling its role for the Shuttle Program, it was lent to the American-Japan Society for the Great Space Shuttle Exposition in Tokyo, and the Society hired Teledyne Brown Engineering, Inc. of Huntsville to overhaul it so it looked nearly identical to the flown Orbiters while being lighter and easier to transport. Pathfinder now sits atop an authentic External Tank test article and two Solid Rocket Booster models to form a complete Space Shuttle stack. During Shuttle launches, the Solid Rocket Boosters provided severity percent of the thrust to lift the stack, while the External Tank fueled the three Space Shuttle Main Engines, which supplied the rest, and the Solid Rocket Boosters and External Tanks were jettisoned after their fuel was depleted.

Huntsville, Alabama · United States