Space shuttle Endeavour officially belongs to the California Science Center
Astronauts attended ceremony
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—The California Science Center became the official owner of the space shuttle Endeavour today at a title-transfer signing ceremony attended by the astronauts who were aboard the shuttle on its final mission this summer.
The center will become the retirement home of the shuttle, which traveled 115 million miles during 25 flights.
“Please don’t scratch it,” shuttle Cmdr. Mark Kelly joked to the crowd attending the ceremony at the Science Center.
NASA announced in April that the Endeavour would be permanently housed at the Science Center—returning the shuttle to the state where it was built more than 20 years ago.
Endeavour was built in Palmdale, beginning in 1987, to replace the destroyed Challenger shuttle, which exploded 73 seconds after takeoff on Jan. 28, 1986. Endeavour was completed in 1991.
Science Center officials said the shuttle would become the centerpiece of its new air and space gallery. The center has already begun a $200 million fundraising campaign to pay for the decommissioning of the shuttle, transporting it to California and providing a museum to house it.
An exact timetable for bringing the shuttle to Los Angeles has not yet been set.
Kelly, the husband of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, was joined at today’s ceremony by fellow Endeavour astronauts Michael Fincke, Gregory Johnson, Roberto Vittori and Andrew Feustel, along with actress June Lockhart of the classic television series “Lost in Space.”
“Isn’t it wonderful to have a mode of transportation that when the pink slip is turned over, it does not lose value when you take it off the lot,” she joked.
The space shuttle Discovery will be retired at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, while Atlantis will be displayed at the Kennedy Space Center visitors’ complex in Florida and Enterprise will be at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—The space shuttle Endeavour, which was built in Palmdale to replace the destroyed Challenger shuttle, will be placed on display at the California Science Center in Exposition Park after its upcoming final mission, NASA announced today.
"Endeavour will now become the centerpiece of the third phase of the Science Center's 25-year master plan and will be a major air and space gallery on the east end of our building,'' center CEO Jeffrey N. Rudolph said.
The California Science Center became the official owner of the space shuttle Endeavour Tuesday at a title-transfer signing ceremony attended by the astronauts who were aboard the shuttle on its final mission this summer.
The center will become the retirement home of the shuttle, which traveled 115 million miles during 25 flights.
“Please don’t scratch it,” shuttle Cmdr. Mark Kelly joked to the crowd attending the ceremony at the Science Center.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—After traveling nearly 123 million miles, the space shuttle Endeavour spent its last moments in the air today as it took a majestic aerial tour of the Southland, drawing cheers from thousands of residents as it passed overhead before landing at Los Angeles International Airport—a stopover on its road to retirement.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The space shuttle Endeavour, which has flown nearly 123 million miles, was on what should be its final journey today—a laboriously slow 12-mile trek from Los Angeles International Airport to its retirement home at the California Science Center in Exposition Park.
It began rolling out of a hangar at the airport around 11:30 p.m. Thursday, said Mary Grady of Los Angeles World Airports, which operates LAX.
Merchants in Leimert Park Village will host a number of activities that are open to the public who come out to view the Shuttle Endeavour as its makes its way from LAX to the California Science Center in Exposition Park on Oct. 13.
