How busy was Udvar-Hazy, zerm? Curious if the initial rush has passed, I'll be going back up there in two weeks, and was just thinking aloud.Thanks! And I, too, feel the same way. Many of the astronauts who were there felt the same, but I guess it's time to move on..
A close friend of mine who works at the NASM as a researcher provided us with a point of trivia. Apparently Discovery lost 6 tiles while being transported. The NASM restoration shop replaced them with dummy tiles, but didn't want blanks just sitting there- so they painted mock code numbering on the tiles with a bit of fun... the word "FOAM" is in the code. We spotted 4 of them right away and got some photos. Lightened up the visit a bit.
Four of the six mock tiles are on the bottom just forward of the body flap. Here's a shot of the four and a close-up of the code printed on one.
Will they try to get replacement tiles from NASA, or will the foam ones stay?
...and from a conservation point of view, you would never put a fake tile on and try and pass it off as a real one, as in 100 years time it gets forgotten about.