Photo Credit Julian Leek
What turned out to be to be a one man’s dream project, and with the hope of giving a space shuttle mock-up to NASA has faded as this replica now sits rotting in a field close to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC).
- ‘Resolution’ a shadow of its former self sits rotting in a field near the Kennedy Space Center. Photo Credit Julian Leek
Eighteen years ago Chuck Ryan was an engineering student at the California Polytechnic State University, he decided to build a full size space shuttle flight deck ‘simulator ‘and named it ‘Resolution’. Ryan paid close attention to detail when building ‘Resolution’ not only on the outside but on the inside, right down to the cockpit toggle switches. After moving the replica from California in 2005 to KSC then giving NASA a presentation for the possible use as a trainer for firefighters.
NASA evaluated the mock-up but rejected the idea as they determined KSC had the right resources to safely train its crews and safety professionals through the end of the shuttle program. Resolution was moved off KSC property and now sits deteriorating behind a locked chain link gated area barely visible from State Road 3, on Merritt Island, one of the main roads leading into KSC.
“Resolution” was not the only one-man dream project of Chuck Ryan. While at Cal Poly SLO in the early ’90s, he had this grandiose vision for a student-run organization known as SPAN (Support and Promotion of Activities for NASA) that would be established on every major college campus across the nation.
Unfortunately, it came as a complete and total surprise for him to learn of the existence of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) which had already been established at MIT a decade beforehand, with chapters at high schools and colleges across the country.