Space Shuttle Endeavour (OV-105) was the fifth and final NASA space
shuttle to be built, constructed as a replacement for Challenger, which was
destroyed 73 seconds after its launch on January 28, 1986. Endeavour
first flew in May 1992 on mission STS-49 and its last mission STS-134 was in May
2011 with total 25 missions, 296 days in space, and 122,883,151 miles traveled.
After decommissioned, NASA decided to send Endeavour to the California
Science Center in Los Angeles.
Sept 16-17 ...
- Kennedy Space Center
The final fly out of Endeavour was originally scheduled on 9/17
from Kenney Space Center. I was crazy (and excited) enough to purchase
the fly-out viewing ticket and used my United
free mileage to go to Orland to see the final flight of Endeavour.
Unfortunately, when I checked in the hotel in Titusville in the evening of
9/16, I learned that the final fly out was delayed due to some storms between
Florida and Houston (it turned out the final flight was delayed by 2 days to
9/19). My visit to KSC on 9/17 became an ordinary
tour (although it was not too bad), and I did not even get a good look of the Space Shuttle
due to some bad communications at KSC on that day....
Sept 21 ...
- NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field
After the non-productive 5000-mile round trip to Florida, I learned
Endeavour will fly by northern California on 9/21 (en route from Edward
AFB to its final destination Los Angeles). Particularly, it will fly
by NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View to
acknowledge the contribution of Ames Research Center to the Space Shuttle
programs. With ~ 10-mile drive and 2-hour wait, I finally got a
glimpse (~
20 sec) of a Space Shuttle that I have missed so many times
(including several unsuccessful lotteries for their final launches in 2011).
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