Space Shuttle Endeavor Flight Deck Is Festooned With Buttons

The flight deck of NASA's now retired space shuttle Endeavor is certainly not the place for a pushbutton Bobby. The buttons you see in this picture are a small part of the switches, toggles, blinking buttons on the flight deck of the retired shuttle. I don't see how the flight crew would keep track of all those buttons and what they do. I have a hard time remembering what key on my keyboard I bound a macro to.

Apparently, mission control would route the flight crew to some not so frequently used buttons by naming the panel and location inside the ship. Another thing that jumps out looking at the photos of the Endeavor flight deck is just how cramped the living conditions where. As many as seven astronauts would spend more than two weeks inside the cramped confines of the shuttle. In the photos of the flight deck, the two rearmost seats are actually removed.

Endeavor was stripped of its kitchen, zero gravity toilet, storage lockers, and other equipment to be placed on display. Apparently, there are over 1000 toggles to control various systems on the shuttle. The space shuttle Endeavor flew the final mission for the shuttle fleet in June of 2011 with 25 missions flown. It is the newest in the shuttle fleet and will end up on display at the California Science Center after making its last ever flight aboard NASA's shuttle ferry 747 jumbo jet.

[via SpaceFlightNow]