The Space Shuttle Endeavor has been cleared to land at its final destination at the California Science Center.
The shuttle, which was previously part of the horizontal display in the Science Center at Exposition Park, made the short but slow move last week from that location to the doorstep of the Science Center's new 200,000-square-foot Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, where it will be on display at Vertical launch standby mode.
On Monday, two cranes will lift the shuttle 200 to 300 feet up the walls of the Ocean Center, then place the vehicle in position between two solid rocket boosters and next to a 65,000-pound external fuel tank known as the ET-94. These components, part of the ready-to-launch configuration, were flown in earlier.
Prior to heavy lifting, the Endeavor will be equipped with a sling device attached to the crane. There will be two tuning fork-shaped devices that act as lifting ropes – one at the front and one at the back of the shuttle. Two cranes will lift the lifting ropes and shuttle into the air.
“Very slowly, we will lower the back of the shuttle, remove the tail crane, and then we will have the entire shuttle on one cable point,” said curator Dr. Kenneth Phillips. “We'll lift it and attach it to the waiting external tank.”
The highly technical action will continue for several hours, likely starting early Tuesday morning.
Endeavor's final flight comes 13 years after its retirement. The Samuel Oshin Air and Space Center will nearly double the science center's educational exhibit space and include three multi-level galleries, themed on aviation, space and shuttle.
Endeavor has been on display horizontally at the Science Center for more than a decade after its spectacular arrival in Los Angeles on a plane. When the project is completed, Endeavor will be the only ready-to-launch demonstration of a former NASA space shuttle in the world.
The opening date of the $400 million center has not yet been set.
