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Space Shuttle Endeavour's Final Journey
daveschroeder writes "After over 296 days in space, nearly 123 million miles traveled, Space Shuttle Endeavour (OV-105) is making its final journey — on the streets of Los Angeles. The last Space Shuttle to be built, the contract for Endeavour was awarded on July 31, 1987. Endeavour first launched on May 7, 1992 (video), launched for the last time on May 16, 2011 (video), and landed for the final time on June 1, 2011 (video). Endeavour then took to the skies aboard the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), completing the final ferry flight and the final flight of any kind in the Space Shuttle Program era with an aerial grand tour of southern California escorted by two NASA Dryden Flight Research Center F/A-18 aircraft on September 21, 2012 (video). This morning around 1:30AM Pacific Time, Endeavour began another journey, this one on the ground. All Space Shuttles have traveled via road from Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, CA, to Edwards Air Force Base, but this time a Space Shuttle is taking to the streets of Los Angeles for the journey from Los Angeles International Airport to its final home at the California Science Center. Getting the shuttle through LA surface streets is a mammoth logistical challenge as it lumbers along at 2 mph to the cheers of onlookers. Watching Endeavour make the journey is a sight to be seen (pictures, video)! Thank you, Endeavour!" Slashdot's Principal Software Engineer Kaushik Acharya was on hand, with camera, and took some great pictures of the event.
blah blah blah
I'm glad this is finally over.
Slashdot has a "Principal Software Engineer"?
Who knew?
LA as we know is well known for its role in the space program, and is well known for being included in famous quotes throughout the space program's history.
Tens of thousands of Houstonians have worked at the JSC so that all the hipsters could Instagramify their giddiness at seeing Endeavour come to its final resting place.
The best thing about a boolean is even if you are wrong, you are only off by a bit.
While I applaud the engineers' achievements, I am not sure that these space shuttles' cost has been worth it. I know experiments have been done in space...but can someone really tell me what an ordinary street walking John Doe has benefited from these shuttles? I am open minded and waiting to be convinced.
Heck, our country is in bad shape financially. The funds used to build and maintain these shuttles could have done a lot more. Isn't it?
the National Museum of the United States Air Force that is amongst a massive history of aerospace development and milestones located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the largest base of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.
I work near LAX, so I was able to watch the landing last month and walk out to see it on the ground today. They let the crowd get a lot closer to the shuttle than I was expecting: just one parking lot aisle away.
My own photos from both events: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kelsonv/sets/72157631590634138/detail/
And good riddance to one of the most overpriced and inefficient NASA programs and hello to the age of private space exploration. In 2011 money, the total cost of the space shuttle program was $190 billion (or $1.5 billion per launch) and let's face it, it wasn't worth it.
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
That was pretty pathetic that they had to cut down all those trees, shame on the person that modded down this AC for mentioning them.
Let's cheer about 1970s technology and the death of the manned space program. Thanks Dub and Barry!
I am impressed about the wide range of people that watched Endeavour and its carrier come in, and are watching the spacecraft move to the museum.
It was a beautiful sight as they swung around the downtown skyscrapers. The roar from pedestrians in the street reached me up the the 23rd floor, and I looked out and saw the majestic aircraft gleaming in the sun as they banked around us.
About half of us rushed to the windows and got out our cellphone cams. Yeah, we all knew we'd be getting shit video out of it, but it was more of a "You Are There" moment that was being captured.
Later that night my son had some twenty-something friends over, and we all spent some time telling our particular stories about how it was. We had something in common.
Today I was in the elevator & the monitor was showing the status of the spacecraft's progress. I rode it up & down a few times to catch the whole story. On my last ride down, a delivery guy got on and saw the video. He looked a little hassled, and said his company was on the route and it delayed him, so now he was humping to catch up. And then his face lit up and he said "but I did get to stand 20-30 feet away", and he proceeded to show me his pics.
I'll probably never see him again, but, for a moment, we had something in common.
His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
First article I've seen in a while mention the antelope valley, the birth place, refurb center and back up landing site of the shuttles. Every time a shuttle was built or had to come in for major repairs it would crawl down the streets of palmdale and lancaster until plant 42 built a shuttle mating module and extended their runway.
And for all you whiners complaining their locality didn't get one, LA was the best choice for population and for its history in this area, I will consider LA being a good proxy for this area considering its only an hour away and we have no facilities to house it in a historic manner. How many of your towns out there can you drive down and not go much more then a mile with out running into something commemorating aerospace history or tragedies (shuttles and dead test pilots).
How are you replacing the trees that had to be removed?
The California Science Center Foundation is investing approximately $2 million to replace 400 trees removed along the route with over 1,000 trees. These replacement trees are between 10 and 14 feet in height -- about the same size as most of the trees they will be removing. A minimum of two years of free maintenance will also be provided. Within five years the community along route will have an even greener and more beautiful tree canopy.
That's okay. They gave their lives for a good cause. And they shall be avenged thrice over.
I've watched a lot of different videos about the shuttles, and by far the most moving for me was one created last year by Nature to celebrate the completed shuttle program.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II7QBLt36xo&hd=1
Because Houston didn't have anything to do with the space program...
than Spain's Franco.
...neighborhoods, the first thing I thought was, "Apple really did screw up their map app".
Table-ized A.I.
you have your frown face on. Drink a soda and cheer up little Gandhi.
Space Shuttle is taking to the streets of Los Angele
Good chance it will be stolen and later found on some side street on blocks with the wheels and the stereo missing.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
just remember this:
The United States is *retiring* a system that the rest of the world _still_ can't match.
The future ?
The technology that will impress will be achieving the same, but cost effectively,
and profitably,
and by private companies.
IE that next advancement of technology will be the profitable and regular access to space available to a much wider audience!
Well, as big projects tend, things are a bit behind schedule. Supposed to be done by 2030PDT, it's 0200 now and they're just getting around to tacking up MLK blvd. I hadn't really planned to go watch, but, I'm up, it's Saturday night, and there's a full moon.
I believe watching them tack up the blvd to avoid cutting down the pines will be slick. I watched "The Rock" as it made its way a few blocks from where I live earlier this year. Incredible engineering and teamwork, but I've seen big stuff move along the blvd before, and I'm ready for something unique.
His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain