NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis (Retired) - Under Wraps

Since entering its six-story exhibit building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida in November 2012, space shuttle Atlantis has been raised off the ground, shrink-wrapped in 16,000 square feet of plastic and tilted 43 degrees

The tilt is designed to give guests a view of what the shuttle looked like to astronauts aboard the International Space Station. 

CREDIT: collectSPACE.com/Robert Z. Pearlman

With Atlantis shielded from dirt and dust, work is underway to finish walkways and theaters that will lead visitors through the history of the space shuttle program as they tour around Atlantis and more than 60 related exhibits.

Come May 2013, when the shuttle is unwrapped, its payload bay doors will be carefully opened, a replica of its Canadarm robotic arm will be extended and a full-scale model of the Hubble Space Telescope will be installed to span two floors.

Meanwhile outside the facility, the finishing touches are being put on the building's glimmering orange facade that was designed to evoke the space shuttle's re-entry into the atmosphere.

Nearby, the steel skeleton of what will be two towering 185-foot-tall (56 meters) replica solid rocket boosters have begun to rise off the ground.

Visitors will walk between the two rockets — and underneath a massive external fuel tank suspended from them — to enter the exhibit.

Looking forward.