Space Shuttle Pathfinder - U.S. Space & Rocket Center

U.S. Space & Rocket Center

After the exhibit, Pathfinder was returned to the United States. In May 1988, it was placed on display at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The 89-ton mockup is displayed as part of a complete Shuttle stack comprising the Pathfinder, the MPTA-ET external tank, which was used for propulsion tests with MPTA-098, and two prototype Advanced Solid Rocket Booster casings, which were developed after the Challenger accident but never put into production.

In 1999, NASA removed the forward assemblies from each SRB attached to the Pathfinder stack. Although the SRBs are recovered and reused after each flight, several of the forward assemblies had been damaged or lost over the history of the Space Shuttle program necessitating requisition of those attached to the Pathfinder stack as spares.

In 2008, repairs were made to the forward part of the mockup after decades of exposure to the weather had corroded the floor section near the vehicle's nose. This corrosion caused the "belly pan" to drop from a mounting bracket onto the external tank. The damaged area was part of the fiberglass and plywood added to the mockup before its exhibition in Japan.