The science museum has been trumpeting the arrival of the shuttle. It flew a Spacelab mission and numerous International Space Station assembly missions and rendezvoused with Russia’s Mir Space Station. Over the next 20 years, Endeavour completed some of the highest-profile shuttle missions. Named for the first ship commanded by British explorer James Cook, Endeavour cost $1.7 billion when it rolled out as a replacement for Challenger, which exploded shortly after its 10th launch. Endeavour’s fellow shuttles Discovery, Enterprise and Atlantis are also now museum pieces. NASA ended the shuttle program in July 2011. The respect was a fitting tribute to the shuttle, which was delivered to Kennedy Space Center in May 1991.Įndeavour’s final journey, are you there? I wanted them to see that,” Covington said.
and I’ve never seen anything like this, so it’s part of history. Latasha Covington and her children, 9-year-old Skilyn and 4-year-old Amarie, brought a chair out Saturday to stand on to get a better view. Villaraigosa called the shuttle’s trip through the city a once-in-a-lifetime event. “I think this is a history-making moment here in Los Angeles, California, and I want to be able to share this with my kids, my grandkids, my great-grandkids … and the children of our school,” Crews said. Gwendolyn Crews, owner of a preschool, told CNN she was bringing her entire preschool to watch the Endeavour’s arrival at the museum. Stunning shots of Endeavour’s final journey Los Angeles Fire Chief Brian Cummings said the shuttle’s “seamless” procession allowed everyone to feel like an astronaut. Crews laid 2,700 steel plates on parts of the route.
Specialists were part of the convoy to make sure the Endeavour and its transporter platform, which together weigh more than 80 tons, didn’t stress underground water and sewer systems. Boulevard, lined with Canary Island pine trees dedicated to the late civil rights leader that officials did not want to cut down.Īs if to remind the world it was designed for precision, the shuttle moved so carefully past the trees that at certain points, the distance between the orbiter’s wing and the tree was the width of a credit card, said Shell Amega, spokeswoman for the California Science Center Foundation. Rudy Lopez.Īs Endeavour neared the science center it had to travel down Martin Luther King Jr.
The shuttle’s trek to the science center was initially expected to end Saturday night, but obstacles and a mechanical issue slowed it down, said Los Angeles Police Sgt. Mayor, I may get kicked for it, but it was the mother of all parades,” he joked, but Villaraigosa agreed. Science center President Jeff Rudolph said everyone along the route was positive and encouraging. He praised the more than 1,000 police officers and more than 200 firefighters who helped the shuttle maneuver through the city, and the hundreds of thousands who came out for the spectacle. Endeavour draws festival of admirers as it inches home
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