The California Science Center Foundation is actively fundraising to complete the 200,000-square-foot structure, having raised $360 million of its $400 million goal. Endeavour will be the only retired space shuttle to be displayed in liftoff position, highlighting the exhibitions in the new building when it opens to the public. The groundbreaking for the 20-story Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center occurred in the spring of 2022, and the building is expected to be completed in mid-2025. The Space Shuttle came to California in 2012, mounted atop a Boeing 747 that landed at LAX before completing a 12-mile journey across the streets of Los Angeles to the California Science Center, where an estimated 18 million people have already visited the orbiter in a temporary display. He reports that the maneuver had to be executed when there was almost no wind, and at night “because once the sun comes up, you get the pressure difference in the atmosphere.” Participants in the project were joined by press and local residents who came out to watch, either from the ground or nearby rooftops. The Odysseus Moon lander is likely lying on its side with its head resting against a rock. The team had also considered an approach that would involve backing the orbiter into the facility and then lifting it to the vertical position, but the option that they chose was considered safer while giving them more control, explains Kenneth Phillips, the California Science Center’s curator of aerospace science. ![]() It could be a few years before it is open to the public, given the construction schedule and additional time needed to install exhibits.California Science Center Breaks Ground on Future Home of Space Shuttle EndeavourĮndeavour’s move was carefully planned with help from NASA engineers. Once the shuttle full stack is in place, the rest of the museum will be built around it. Such “diagrids” have been used in other tall buildings, including the 46-story Hearst Tower in New York City, the iconic 40-story ovular Gherkin skyscraper in London and a section of the egg-shaped London City Hall. It will feature a a diagonal grid developed by engineering firm Arup and covered by a stainless-steel facade. To keep views unobstructed, the building has been engineered with no vertical supports except its walls. The full-stack configuration is so tall that the new museum will rise 20 stories to make room for it. For 11 years, Endeavour was displayed in a temporary hangar, the Samuel Oschin Pavilion, as the museum worked on a permanent home. When the shuttle was stacked with its external tank and solid rocket boosters at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the assembly was done inside NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building - one of the largest by volume in the world, rising more than 50 stories and equipped with plenty of cranes and platforms from which to work.Ī veteran of 25 space trips from 1992 to 2011, Endeavour made its last flight in 2012, ending a cross-country journey at Los Angeles International Airport before undertaking a three-day trek along city streets to the California Science Center. “This has never been done like this before, with cranes and outside and at a construction site,” he said. “Wind and wings don’t go well on a crane,” Rudolph said. “And then the challenge is actually bringing the orbiter - ‘capturing it’ - at the three attach points.”īecause Endeavour is essentially a glider with a massive wingspan, it’ll be difficult to guide it down if there are strong winds. space structure on orbit and conducted a variety of scientific experiments in a Spacehab laboratory module carried in Endeavour's. “There are a few places where there’s some challenging parts in the lowering of it because of the tight fit with the wings and vertical stabilizer,” he said. ![]() Overnight Monday into the early hours of Tuesday (Jan. ![]() (California Science Center) Space shuttle Endeavour will be open on horizontal display at the California Science Center until Dec. JanuA complete space shuttle is standing upright for the first time in more than a decade. With the Endeavour orbiter - the last space shuttle ever built - crews will need to maneuver an object with a 78-foot wingspan and get “everything absolutely level and aligned properly, and extremely gently,” Rudolph said. Space shuttle Endeavour will be assembled atop the framed concrete pad, beginning with its solid rocket boosters. The tank is so large that, as it was lowered, there was less than an inch of space between it and the solid rocket boosters. There are different challenges lifting the shuttle than the external tank, which was completed earlier this month. Nothing should change after that until the museum opens the payload bay doors in a few years when Endeavour is ready for public display, Rudolph said. California Space shuttle Endeavour makes one more voyage to its final destination at a new space centerĪfter being on display at the California Science Center for more than a decade, the Endeavor began it’s final move to a new center as it’s permanent home.
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