CEV Mockup

Right outside the door of the clean room, workers were detailing a plywood Crew Exploration Vehicle mockup. The tour guide did not explain the purpose of this particular mockup.

Immediately adjacent to the site of the CEV mockup was a robotic arm. The tour guide said that this remote manipulator system was originally designed and built for the Dextre robotic Hubble servicing mission (in the wake of the Columbia disaster, the then-planned manned Hubble servicing mission was deemed too dangerous and was replaced with a robotic mission). After MDA (the same company which produced the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator arm for the ISS) completed manufacturing the arm, the robotic mission was replaced with the originally-planned manned mission, rendering the arm surplus. The arm was awaiting use in some future project.