Thread winner!
We built the aft and overhead windows in the fixed-base and motion-base simulators. So that if the astronaut needed to practice a satellite launch or operation of the Canadian robotic arm on the shuttle, they would look out one of those windows. (They also looked out the overhead windows for navigational purposes.) Also BTW, the Canadians were endlessly proud of that robotic arm, to the point that I’ll bet that Canadian coverage of the Challenger disaster probably led with the loss of the robotic arm. (Just kidding.)
By the way, they rehearsed everything about a mission, from the launch to the landing. And so that included the mundane stuff, like meals and bathroom functions. The Apollo astronauts defecated into what was basically a plastic bag taped to one’s butt. But the shuttles had a more advanced system, officially called the Waste Collection System (but at the time unofficially called “Crippen’s Crapper,” after Robert Crippen, who was then head of the astronaut program).
I spent most of my time there with the fixed-base simulator, which was located in a big room in (I think) Building 5 of Johnson Space Center. The cockpit part of the simulator was raised above the floor, so that you had to climb a ladder to get into it. (Presumably this will change in a museum exhibition.) But there was really no security preventing anyone from entering the cockpit. Weirdly, though, the toilet simulator was behind a locked door, just below the cockpit. It was explained to me that one used the toilet by sitting down in such a way as to make an airtight seal with the surface of the seat, and then once you defecated, a vacuum system would suck the feces into the chamber. So the simulator had a camera down the hole that one could use to practice one’s aim, without of course actually depositing anything. I was just amused by the idea that the toilet simulator seemed to be under tighter control than the flight simulator.
“New York, we have a problem” just doesn’t roll off the tongue as easy. Plus, decades of jokes will become obsolete!
Elections have consequences.
“‘We have a problem’? No, YOU got a problem. Since when is it MY problem?”
AND they already have the Spruce Goose!
(used to live there… my mom and I drove up to the road where they were hauling it in, and apparently got through right before the police blocked it off and thus got a closer look than most anyone else. That thing is HUGE!)
Plus JPL is located in Southern California.
In a perfect world, we’d have had one hell of a lot more than three (or five) shuttles to go around. Certainly Houston is deserving of one. So are one hell of a lot more than two other places. Them’s the breaks.
The only one I’d put on the must-have list is the Smithsonian.
Plus, there are a lot of people in Southern California. Surely the number of people who will see the things we put in museums has to be worth at least a little in the calculus of where to put them.
I would say the top three spots should be the Smithsonian, Kennedy Space Center, and Johnson Space Center.
Yeah, but rumor has it they outsource all their important work.
Sorry, I thought this was the thread for complaining about local public transportation options…
Not really. They picked up all of the pieces they could find and took them away.
Cue Foghorn Leghorn voice.
That was a joke son.
I am too embarrassed to tell you how long it took me to get that.
You’re my hero. 
There’s some scrap Burans floating around out there. How about one of those?
<Nitpick> JPL doesn’t do manned missions.
That’s why they really, really need a space shuttle!
I just have visions of all the JPL people “touring” a donated Shuttle like people who are house hunting. Its so big! And look at this! You know what we could put over there! There’s even another room here! Can we afford this?!