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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.
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I'm glad this is finally over.
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?
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.