The “Inspiration” Space Shuttle Makes Its Move

The shuttle was dismantled onto four Dunkel trucks, including the crew cabin, parts of the payload bay and the aft section with its three main engines. The shuttle traveled slowly on Downey streets Thursday, October 17^th, pausing midway for a brief ceremony with Columbia Memorial Space Center leaders, state representatives and local officials. The space shuttle made a stop at a renovation facility to be restored before its final destination as a display at the new exhibit hall in the Columbia Memorial Space Center. Dunkel is very honored and proud to be a part of such a historic move.

Dunkel is a part of MEI Industrial Solutions, formerly MEI Rigging & Crating, a premier national provider of rigging, machinery moving, millwrighting, mechanical installation, industrial storage, crating, and export packaging services. Since Dunkel’s founding in 1975, Dunkel has provided unmatched machinery moving services, rigging services, storage and warehousing and transportation services for California’s most prominent industries, ranging from aerospace manufacturing to medical imaging to data center new construction and maintenance.

The space shuttle had been in storage for over a decade, but now the original full-size prototype space shuttle was on the move. The prototype was built in 1972 as part of Rockwell International’s successful bid to build NASA’s shuttles. Dunkel was selected to take on the heavy move of the 122-feet long and 35-feet tall space shuttle mock-up.