Ready Jet Go
Endeavor's Payload
Clip: Season 2 Episode 9 | 1m 30sVideo has Closed Captions
Dr. Ken Phillips tells us all about Endeavor and it's Payload Bay.
Amy Mainzer visits the California Science Center and Dr. Phillips, who tells her all about the space shuttle Endeavor and it's Payload Bay. It's the place where things going into space for experiments are carried and it's as big as a schoolbus!
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Ready Jet Go
Endeavor's Payload
Clip: Season 2 Episode 9 | 1m 30sVideo has Closed Captions
Amy Mainzer visits the California Science Center and Dr. Phillips, who tells her all about the space shuttle Endeavor and it's Payload Bay. It's the place where things going into space for experiments are carried and it's as big as a schoolbus!
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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- Hi, I'm astronomer Amy Mainzer.
And this is Dr. Ken Phillips, the curator of Aerospace Science at the California Science Center.
And this... this is "Endeavour"!
"Endeavour's" one of five space shuttles that were used for almost 30 years to take astronauts into space.
The space shuttle's really big, about 120 feet long.
But about half of that is for what's called payload.
But what exactly is that?
Payload's the stuff we're trying to put in space, is that right?
- That's right.
So it could be a component or part of the International Space Station.
It could be experiments that people want to take to space, like, you know, does a spider spin a nice, symmetrical web?
- Yeah, that's a great question.
- Does it--yeah, you would put one of those experiments, or a bunch, into the payload bay.
That's where you carry the cargo.
You would take them to space, you'd do your experiment, and you'd bring them back.
- So the payload bay is kind of like the trunk of your car.
- Yeah.
- That's where you throw all your stuff in when you're trying to get somewhere, right?
- The payload bay, it's exactly the size of a school bus.
- A school bus fits inside this space shuttle?
- It does indeed.
- Did they ever launch a school bus?
- No, they didn't.
With a bunch of kids in it?
No.
Yeah, no, they never launched a school bus.
But you can imagine what volume-- and when I say volume, what do I mean?
- How big something is.
- How big it is, right.
- How much space does it take up?
- Exactly.
And that meant it was very versatile, meaning that it could do many different things.
- So the next time you get on a school bus, you can imagine it fitting perfectly into the payload bay of the shuttle and blasting off for adventures in space.
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