![]() The trip down memory lane continues when Endeavour stops near Johnson Space Center outside of Houston, home of the shuttle program’s mission control, to spend Wednesday night. (And no, the anglicized “Endeavour” is not a typo the shuttle was named after Captain Cook’s research vessel, which he used to observe the 1769 transit of Venus form the South Pacific.)Įndeavour, which is bolted to the top of a tricked out 747, left Kennedy Space Center in Florida and was scheduled to fly over Stennis Space Center (a little-known NASA rocket testing facility in Mississippi) and the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans (which is best known for its assembly of the shuttle’s external tank). It first flew in 1992 as the replacement for Challenger. Over its two decades of spaceflight, Endeavour logged 299 days in space and put almost 123 million miles on the odometer. ![]() And despite the piggybacked, decidedly sub-orbital nature of the journey, this one has millions of people around the country buzzing with excitement. The Associated Press contributed to this report.Early Wednesday morning, the Space Shuttle *Endeavour *began its final flight. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.Įnterprise, which was released from a carrier aircraft for approach and landing tests, is displayed at the Intrepid Museum in New York. Discovery rests on its landing gear at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Retired shuttles Atlantis and Discovery and the test ship Enterprise, which did not go to space, are on display across the country.Ītlantis is at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, where it is displayed as if in orbit with its payload doors open and robotic arm extended. 28, 1986. Columbia broke apart during reentry on Feb. Shuttle Challenger was lost and its crew of seven died in a launch accident Jan. In all, NASA operated five shuttles in space. The 116-foot-long (35.3-meter-long) rocket motors were trucked to Los Angeles from the Mojave Desert in October and installed the following month. In use, the boosters would be attached to the external tank to help the shuttle's main engines lift off. The “Go for Stack" assembly began in July with installation of the bottom segments of the side boosters, known as aft skirts, for the first time outside of a NASA facility. The external tank arrived by barge and made a similar crawl to the Science Center. That spectacle in the sky was followed by a slow move through tight city streets to Exposition Park. The shuttle was flown to Los Angeles International Airport in 2012 on the back of a NASA Boeing 747. When the project is complete, Endeavour will be the only launch-ready display of a former NASA space shuttle in the world.Īn opening date for the $400 million center has not yet been determined.Įndeavour flew 25 missions between 19, when NASA’s shuttle program ended. ![]() The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center will nearly double the Science Center's educational exhibition space and include three multi-level galleries, themed for air, space and shuttle.Įndeavour had been on display horizontally at the Science Center for more than a decade after its spectacular arrival in Los Angeles on the back of an airliner. The highly technical move continued for several hours.Įndeavour's final flight comes 13 years after its retirement. "We'll lift it over and attach it to the waiting external tank." 21, 2012, during a4.5-hour aerial tour over California. "Very slowly, we will lower the back part of the shuttle, remove the back crane, and then we'll have the entire shuttle on one cable point," said curator Dr. NASAs space shuttle Endeavour flies over Los Angeles International Airport while riding piggyback atop its Shuttle Carrier Aircraft on Sept. ![]() About the next big move for Endeavour at the California Science Center
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