Aerospace Replicas

                       Guard-Lee specializes in the following types of Full Scale Aerospace Replicas:

                             Space Suits: For display, demonstration, wearing, and photo-opportunity.

                      Space Capsules from all major manned US Space Programs, built as museum replicas.

            U.S. Space Shuttle Orbiters: Built as museum replicas, trainers, demonstrators, and specialty displays.

                         Satellites, Orbital Telescopes, and Space Probes, built as hanging museum replicas.

                                 U.S. Apollo Moon Landing Program Vehicles, built as museum replicas.

            Military Air Vehicles and Munitions, built as museum displays, trade show models, and training devices.

                                    Aircraft and Rockets, built as museum replicas and outdoor icons.

Space Shuttle Atlantis, 2013

                                        Special photography in this article by Mitch Tartock, Guard-Lee, Inc.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis attraction opened in June 2013 at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA. Here Atlantis is displayed in grand and dynamic fashion, and the surrounding exhibits and interactive devices tell the story of the Space Shuttle and its role in history and science.

Prior to Atlantis arriving at the display venue, preparations to get the Orbiter ready for display included work by Guard-Lee:

Main Engine Augments: When the Shuttle Program ended, flight-worthy Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME) were retained by NASA for future program use. The retired Orbiters were given “test” and “engineering use only” SSME nozzles to complete them for display. Guard-Lee designed and applied artistic treatments for these engines to make them appear as flown articles. The treatment processes were eventually applied to all three retired orbital vehicles: Endeavour, Discovery, and Atlantis.

Full Scale Airlock Representation with Docking Adapter: This piece was built at Guard-Lee and installed in Atlantis by Shuttle technicians in the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) at Kennedy Space Center.

Four Replica Payload Bay Cameras: These were also installed while Atlantis was in the OPF.

Full Scale RMS Arm Representation: This piece was built at Guard-Lee and installed in Atlantis just prior to the opening of the venue.

                 In addition, Guard-Lee designed and built the following displays at Space Shuttle Atlantis:

                                                     Full scale Hubble Space Telescope, suspended

                                                 ISS Crawl-thru 1/3 scale model, partially suspended

                      Full scale ISS Destiny module with partial interior experiment racks, used as video enclosure

                                            Full size split Shuttle Cockpit, as a sit-in photo-opportunity

                                                       EMU space suit with partial RMS, suspended

                                                     EMU space suit with MMU backpack, suspended  

Working with the primary exhibit contractor, Nassal, Guard-Lee performed the following cooperative and components efforts:

                             Stabilization of the artifact “Beanie Cap” from one of the Shuttle Launch Towers

                            Stabilization of a complete artifact SSME, an engine having flown on three missions

                                           Refurbishment of a scale Space Shuttle “Full Stack” model

                            Creation of Shuttle switchpanels for the interactive simulators in the SSA “sim bay”.