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Me trying out the space suit navigation device.

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Inside the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility, very much like the underwater tank but without water. Space station, shuttle, and satellite parts are all over the place.

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Some official folks checking out the equipment.

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Parts of the space station. Whenever the build anything that goes into space for people to use or service, they build an extra for this room. When there's a problem on the space station or shuttle, astronauts or others will go through here to find a solution.

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Layout of the items in the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility.

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Another stop is Hangar X where the recently-cancelled X-38 project is housed.

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This is an X-38, designed as a landing craft for those on the space station. The idea is it would stay docked to the shuttle and if an escape is needed up to seven astronauts would climb in and glide back to earth. It would land with the help of a parachute.

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Another X-38 in the background. They built a few of these, and they tested perfectly. When President Bush announced his plan to go back to the moon, the X-38 was scrapped. There was an underlying disagreement about the decision with the folks I spoke to there. It really did seem like this was a great idea. One immediate impact is that the maximum capacity of the space shuttle remains at three people because the Russian escape vehicle only holds that number. With the X-38, seven scientists could remain on board.

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An X-38 (one of the two shown in the earlier photo) being dropped from a B-52 on a test flight.

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Back end of an X-38.

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Some additional X-38 info.