![]() 24) to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., where it will be grounded and become a parts donor for NASA's SOFIA airborne astronomical observatory. The SCA meanwhile is scheduled to make its final flight on Monday (Sept. The air- and- spacecraft now separated, Endeavour will move into a United Airlines hangar to be further prepared for its transport and display. The decision to complete the de-mate process overnight was made to avoid the deafening noise from arriving and departing airplanes, which could interfere with the critical communications between the 30 people working the operation. The cranes, as well as a network of cables that served as wind restraints, were anchored to the airport's apron by 200 attach points earlier drilled into the tarmac. The shuttle was then lowered on to the wheeled platform. ![]() Using a very similar, two-crane contraption to what was deployed earlier this year to hoist sister ship Discovery and the prototype Enterprise from the same jetliner after their ferry flights to Washington, D.C., and New York City, the 155,000-pound (70,000-kilogram) Endeavour was carefully raised so that the aircraft could back away and the transporter could drive in underneath. Read more space and science news on CNN’s Light Years blogĬNN’s Ric Ward contributed to this report.To prepare Endeavour for its 12-mile (19-kilometer) parade through the city streets of Inglewood and Los Angeles next month, NASA's team first had to remove the orbiter from the back of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) and then load it onto a modified overland transporter. It flew a Spacelab mission and numerous International Space Station assembly missions and rendezvoused with Russia’s Mir Space Station. Over the next 20 years, Endeavour flew some of the most high-profile shuttle missions, covering 25 flights and nearly 123 million miles. It was the baby of the shuttle fleet, built as a replacement for Challenger. Named for the first ship commanded by British explorer James Cook, Endeavour rolled off the assembly plant in Palmdale, California, in 1991 at a cost of $1.7 billion. On Friday, Endeavour will embark on a tour of Northern California, dipping over NASA’s Ames Research Center, Sacramento and San Francisco before heading back to Los Angeles, where it will become an exhibit at the California Science Center. NASA says that on Thursday, Endeavour is scheduled to depart Houston at dawn and then make a make a fueling stop at Biggs Army Air Field in El Paso before proceeding to Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California. It strikes a chord of nostalgia in you because she’s done so many flights from the space center. “It’s the last time that she’ll ever be at her home base again. Wednesday’s leg took Endeavour to Houston, with flyovers along Florida’s Space Coast, Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.Īs Endeavour bid farewell to Kennedy Space Center, it elicited strong emotions from people, such as CNN iReporter Randy Lathrop of Cocoa, Florida, who have lived with the shuttle program nearby for decades. “Social media users are encouraged to share their Endeavour sightings using the hashtags #spottheshuttle and #OV105, Endeavour’s orbiter vehicle designation,” NASA said. The flying duo will dip to about 1,500 feet at many points, to afford a better view to spectators on the ground. ![]() NASA expects Endeavour to draw crowds of onlookers as the Boeing 747 plots a course over space centers in at least five states and makes stops along the way. Watch: Trees removed to make way for EndeavourĮndeavour’s three-day piggyback flight atop a modified jumbo jet is divided into three legs that could be described as scenic routes to showcase the shuttle to the public. ![]() Photos: Space Shuttle Enterprise in the Big Apple ![]()
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