How to Drive Space Shuttle Endeavour Down the Streets of Los Angeles

By Nancy Atkinson - November 15, 2011 at 12:47 AM UTC | Space Exploration

Even though the space shuttle is capable of circling the Earth in just 90 minutes, getting Space Shuttle Endeavour to travel the final 22 km (14 miles) to its ultimate resting place will take over 13 hours -- not to mention a huge community effort. It's not everyday the nearly six-story, 82,000 kg (180,0000 lb) spacecraft -- with a 24-meter (78-foot) wing span -- takes to the streets of any city, not to mention the famous freeways of Los Angeles, California. But now that the shuttles are retired and will be heading to museums, the cities that will be home to the four remaining space shuttles are figuring out the logistics of transporting these huge spacecraft through their streets. So, just how exactly do you drive a space shuttle from the LAX airport to the California Science Center? Slowly. Very slowly — even by L.A. traffic standards.

LA

TV station KCET's news magazine show, SoCal Connected

shared this report with Universe Today, explaining what it will take to get Endeavour "home" by late 2012.

Decommissioning and transporting -- $28 million. Building a new museum wing and exhibit -- $170 million. Owning a piece of space history -- priceless.

Here's a cool timelapse from the LA Times:

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com