@dawes #12: a good part of my childhood was financed by my mother's participation in the construction of the space shuttle 'enterprise' and mom wasn't a carpenter! mock-ups do not need flight recorders, ring-laser gyros, hybrid accelerometers or any of the various and assorted other cutting edge [for the time] tech that she took part in building for the 'enterprise'. while, as johnny73 points out, she never went to space, the bird did fly. she was piggy-backed to cruising altitude atop a boeing 747 before being dropped and left to fly to and land at edwards, repeatedly. styro and plywood? please do a little research before insulting the thousands of people who contributed to the creation of the prototype or the men who flew her.