Pathfinder

The Space Shuttle Pathfinder is a Space Shuttle replica. It originated as STA-098, a test article constructed by NASA in 1977 out of wood and steel to test ground clearances and handling. It was purchased in the early 1980s by the America-Japan Society, Inc. which had it refurbished, named it, and placed it on display in the Great Space Shuttle Exhibition in Tokyo. The mockup was later returned to the United States and placed on permanent display at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, in May 1988.