There is a marvelous sight in Hong Kong, which is right out of this space age. It's not the view over Hong Kong Island and the business center, with its towering skyscrapers and the striking Bank of China building. The sight I am referring to is the view in the Hong Kong Space Museum of an American space shuttle deck which a visitor can stand in. As large as the flight deck of a 747 Jumbo jet, the cabin where the two pilots sit in control of the ll3-tonne American space shuttle has been reproduced in life-size dimensions in the Space Museum. It is quite a climb up to the flight floor, as the shuttle is surprisingly large close up. Here are the panels of dials, the flashing lights, the two comfortable chairs for pilot and commander to direct the shuttle which powers through space at more than 27, 000 kilometers an hour. It is a surprise to see how tiny the windows are, but they have to withstand the more-than- 1000 degree centigrade heat of the shuttle's entry back into the earth's atmosphere. The space shuttle cabin is just one of the many surprises in a surprising museum which has numerous 'hands-on” exhibits. There is a gravity-defying centrifuge to give visitors a ride that creates the same sense of weightlessness that space astronauts feel during space travel. There are science exhibits which demonstrate planetary movement, or the forces that push a rocket into space and video films show how astronauts eat in space and what the menu is. Other videos outline the history and achievements of the world's largest radio telescope in South America and discuss the intriguing questions of whether the earth has had visitors from outer space. One of the great visual thrills in the museum is its Omnimax cinema where you lie back in your reclining seat and watch moving pictures projected across 360 degrees around you on the dome-shaped roof. The author of the passage was______.