Space Shuttle Endeavour Home Opens in LA, Nearly 200 Feet Tall
The California Science Center opened its Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center on Friday, displaying space shuttle Endeavour upright in launch position with real rocket boosters and a fuel tank. Admission is free, but timed reservations are required.
The California Science Center in Los Angeles opened its Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center to the public on Friday, giving space shuttle Endeavour a permanent new home in a nearly 200-foot-tall launch configuration.
The shuttle stands upright with authentic solid rocket boosters and an external tank. The Science Center says it is the only complete, authentic space shuttle system on view anywhere in the world.
How to visit
General admission to the Science Center is free. Timed reservations are required for the new center because of anticipated demand. A $4 service fee applies, but it is waived for Science Center members and for in-person, same-day reservations.
Entry may be limited or unavailable without advance reservations. The Air and Space Center is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. The Science Center is at 700 Exposition Park Drive in Exposition Park.
What is inside
The 200,000-square-foot expansion nearly doubles the Science Center's exhibit space. It holds 100 aerospace artifacts and 100 hands-on exhibits focused on science and engineering.
Visitors can ride a 140-foot elevator up the launch stack to a glass-floor observation platform above the orbiter. Other attractions include a shuttle landing simulator, a replica flight deck and a 45-foot slide designed to evoke the shuttle's return through Earth's atmosphere.
The center has three multilevel galleries: the Samuel Oschin Shuttle Gallery, the Korean Air Aviation Gallery and the Kent Kresa Space Gallery.
The aviation gallery features more than a dozen aircraft, including gliders and fighter jets, plus part of a Korean Air Boeing 747-400. Visitors can take a five-minute simulated flight from Los Angeles to Seoul, the center said.
The space gallery shows flown spacecraft, including the Mercury-Redstone 2 capsule, the Gemini 11 capsule and the Apollo-Soyuz Command Module. It also has exhibits developed with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, among them hands-on activities such as programming a miniature Mars rover.
Astronauts at the opening
All six crew members from Endeavour's final mission, STS-134, attended. The mission was commanded by Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona.
"Kids from around the country will visit this place, look up at that spaceship, and be inspired to build hard things, and do hard things," Kelly said.
Endeavour helped begin assembly of the International Space Station by delivering its first components to orbit. It went on to complete 25 missions.
Opening weekend events
Free astronaut and aerospace talks run every half-hour from Friday through Sunday, with the last talk at 4 p.m. Topics include women in space and mission overviews. Speakers include astronauts and experts from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center.
A photo exhibit, "Endeavour's Long Journey," also opened Friday on the third floor in the Weingart Foundation Special Exhibits Gallery. It documents the shuttle's final flight over California, its 12-mile, 68-hour trip through Los Angeles and Inglewood, and its vertical installation. It is included with general admission, and timed reservations are not required.
Some images in the exhibit come from NASA photographers who documented the ferry flight on September 21, 2012. NASA Armstrong lead photographer Jim Ross said people in the Los Angeles area "really came out and supported the Endeavour flyover."
