Three surviving Space Shuttles are on display, in Washington DC, California, and Florida. Here is a virtual walkaround of the Space Shuttle vehicle.
Me, in front of the shuttle Discovery
Full-size engineering mockup of the shuttle “stack” configured for launch (it would be sitting upright on the pad). The Orbiter is attached to the big orange external fuel tank, which feeds liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen to the shuttle’s Main Engines during launch. The two white Solid Rocket Boosters on each side provide most of the thrust for liftoff. Once the stack reaches orbit velocity, the boosters fall away and are recovered and re-used, while the external tank detaches and falls into the ocean.
The Orbiter is the part of the Space Shuttle System that carries the crew and enters space.
Here you can get a sense of scale
The cockpit
Shaped carbon-fiber panels form the leading edge of the wings
The holes in the nose are nozzles for small rockets that form the attitude control system
Spacelab, a module carried inside the cargo bay that is used for experiments
The Space Shuttle Main Engines are used on takeoff and to slow the Shuttle for re-entry. In-flight maneuvers are made with the two pods on either side of the back part of the Orbiter, known as the Orbital Maneuvering System
The three Space Shuttle Main Engines, and above them the two Orbital Maneuvering engines
Space Shuttle Main Engine
Ceramic-silicone sponge heat tiles cover the Orbiter’s exterior. Each tile is individually fitted.
The black tiles are used for high-temperature areas, while the white tiles cover areas that receive less heat on re-entry
The Orbiter’s underside acts as the heat shield during re-entry
The cargo bay
Cockpit training simulator