Space shuttle endeavour location3/31/2024 ![]() ![]() "We don't want to damage the space shuttle." "When we actually bring it in to attach to the external tank, all the materials are really fragile," California Science Center President Jeff Rudolph said. The center's chief concern is the wind swinging the space shuttle as it erected into a tight space. Space Shuttle Endeavour is lifted into the site of the future Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center on Jan. It was hoisted to a vertical position and was inching closer to the tank and boosters. It's been so long I've been waiting 34 years for this moment," said Kenneth Phillips, curator of aerospace science at the California Science Center and one of the brains behind this first-of-its-kind project.Ī 450-foot crane began lifting the Endeavour late Monday to attach it to its full tank and two rocket boosters, which will make it the only shuttle in the world to be displayed like it's ready for liftoff. ![]() It could be a few years before it is open to the public, given the construction schedule and additional time needed to install exhibits.Endeavour shuttle lifted into final upright display 02:40Įxcitement is in the air as the Space Shuttle Endeavour moves into its permanent home at the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center. 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. ![]() “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. 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. 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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