The route has been carefully planned to take into account the need to temporarily remove trees, traffic signals and other obstacles that are within reach of the shuttle's 78-foot (24-meter) wingspan.Įndeavour, inside the Oschin Pavilion, will be displayed on its overland transporter. plant where they were first assembled and underwent periodic upgrades to the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base to be ferried back to Florida.Ī couple of weeks later in mid-October, Endeavour will be slowly towed through the streets of Los Angeles, crossing the 13 miles (21 kilometers) separating the airport and the science center. Outside the hangar, NASA will use two large cranes to hoist Endeavour off its 747 carrier jet and onto a wheeled transporter, the same device used to move space shuttlesoverland from the Palmdale, Calif.
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"United Airlines has generously donated use of a hangar and their ramp space outside the hangar for NASA's use in the removal of Endeavour from the SCA and other necessary work to prepare for transport to the Science Center," Rudolph said. Īfter its cross-country trip, Endeavour will touch down at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), the landing strip closest to the science center, with a runway long enough to accommodate NASA's jumbo jetand space shuttle duo.įrom there, it will be brought over to its temporary home, an aircraft hangar on loan from United Airlines. All rights reserved."We are working with NASA to finalize target dates in late September," Jeffrey Rudolph, president and CEO of the California Science Center (CSC), told collectSPACE. 30.įollow collectSPACE on Facebook and Twitter collectSPACE and editor Robert Pearlman robertpearlman. The California Science Center will open the new Samuel Oschin Space Shuttle Endeavour Display Pavilion on Oct. on a 12-mile (19-kilometer) journey to its new home. 12, the shuttle will begin a two day road trip to the California Science Center, moving through the streets of Inglewood and L.A. Once on the ground in Los Angeles and without a corresponding Mate-Demate Device at LAX, Endeavour will be hoisted off the SCA using two large cranes and positioned onto a modified NASA overland transporter. The journey, and its pre-departure preparations, are subject to both weather and operational constraints and could be delayed or changed, NASA officials advised. In addition to performing low passes while flying over several NASA facilities, the carrier aircraft and its orbiter passenger will make planned stops in Houston and El Paso in Texas, and at Edwards Air Force Base in southern California before finally landing at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on Sept. The space shuttle era's final ferry flight will take Endeavour on a cross-country tour. The air- and space-craft combo will exit the MDD on Sunday morning in preparation for their final departure on Monday. On Saturday, technicians will work to "hard mate" the connection, securing bolts that will hold the two vehicles together in flight. The two craft were "soft-mated" by mid-afternoon. Endeavour was then lowered onto the back of the jetliner, such that three ports on its underbelly aligned with the attachment points protruding from the 747's upper fuselage.
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Over the course of several hours, the 155,000-pound (70,000-kilogram) shuttle was attached to a metal sling and hoisted 90 feet into the air so that the carrier aircraft, known by its tail number as NASA 905, could be towed in underneath it. "There were definitely some tears this morning during the rollover from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the Mate-Demate Device, especially from those who have worked on Endeavour for a long period of time." "We are a little bit sad that this will be the last time that we're doing this," Stilson told reporters covering the mating operations.
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Arriving at Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility in the pre-dawn hours, Endeavour was moved into a gantry-like steel structure known as the Mate-Demate Device (MDD) to be paired with the 747 SCA. 14) towed the shuttle from where it was temporarily parked inside its former launch assembly building to the runway where it last returned from space. To prepare Endeavour for its ferry flight to the West Coast, NASA technicians on Friday (Sept.