SPACE SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR at the California Science Center, Los Angeles

Entrance to Space Shuttle Exhibit at the California Science Center

In the fall of 2012, I watched on television as the space shuttle Endeavour made its slow journey from LAX through the streets of Los Angeles on its way to its new home at the California Science Center in Exposition Park. Tree branches had been trimmed, power lines relocated, and other obstacles moved along the carefully chosen route. Thousands of people lined the streets to witness this historic journey. It was first stage of Mission 26, Endeavour’s final mission.

Space Shuttle Endeavour inside the Samuel Oschin Pavilion

Last July, I went with my family to spend a day at the California Science Center and finally had a chance to see the Endeavour close-up.  Only then did I really appreciate its enormous size and its important role, along with the other NASA space shuttles, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery and Atlantis, in the exploration and understanding of outer space.

Record of  Endeavour's First flight, 1992

The Endeavour is currently housed in a temporary, hanger-like building adjacent to the museum, the Samuel Oschin Pavilion. Walls of the building are lined with photographs of the many space shuttle crews, documenting the history of the program which began in 1981 and ended with the last space flight of the Endeavour June 1, 2011. 

Inside the museum, a companion exhibit, Endeavour: the California Story, shows various aspects of shuttle life in space ranging from what kind of food the astronauts ate to the waste collection system (“space potty”) to scientific experiments and walks in space.  It celebrates Endeavour’s many scientific achievements and its strong connection to California, where all the orbiters were built. The California Story includes images of Endeavour under construction locally in Palmdale and Downey, as well as artifacts that flew into space aboard Endeavour. A film of the Endeavour’s journey from the airport is part of the exhibit as well.

Film of Endeavour on the streets of Los Angeles is part of the exhibit

For a fee, one can also take a “ride” in space–enclosed in a vibrating capsule with a video display, it recreates what it feels like traveling inside the space shuttle.

Space capsule "ride"

I am old enough to remember when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gargarin was the first person to fly in space more than fifty years ago.  It is amazing to contemplate how much more we now know about outer space than we did then–much due to the space shuttle program–and how much more there is to know.

Note: During the second phase of Mission 26, now through October 25 (dates subject to change), the Science Center will open the shuttle's payload bay doors to install its final cargo. Space shuttle experts will install a flown SPACEHAB and other equipment into the payload bay, in preparation for Endeavour's permanent display. Click HERE to learn more about the payload installation.

This will be the only opportunity to see the payload bay open for several years. After the payload is installed, the doors will be closed until stage three of Mission 26, when Endeavour is moved to its new home, and is lifted into vertical position—another step closer to the launch of the new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, projected to open in 2018.

Timed reservations to see Endeavour are required for weekends, holidays, special events and high attendance seasons.

I am grateful to my son-in-law Humberto Gutierrez Rivas for the use of his photos of the Endeavour exhibit.