Shuttle Endeavour Lands for the Final Time at Edwards Air Force Base

By Nancy Atkinson - September 20, 2012 11:02 PM UTC | Space Exploration

En route to its final home in Los Angeles, space shuttle Endeavour is taking a victory tour of sorts through the southern part of the US. Yesterday, the shuttle took off from Kennedy Space Center, mounted atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), and landed in Ellington Field near Johnson Space Center in Houston, flying over the Houston area to allow crowds of people to see the unusual spectacle of the shuttle and the 747 aircraft flying together low over the city. Today, the duo made a flyover of Tucson, Arizona, a request of space shuttle commander Mark Kelly so that his wife and former senator Gabrielle Giffords could watch -- along with thousands of others in the Tucson area.

posted this picture on Twitter of himself and Gabrielle Giffords watching Endeavour fly over Tucson, Arizona.

Before flying over Houston, Endeavour and the SCA made low passes over NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and Lockheed Martin's Michoud Assembly Facility on the east side of New Orleans, where the shuttle's external fuel tanks were built.

Following an overnight stay at Edwards Air Force Base on Thursday, the SCA and Endeavour will salute the surrounding area early Friday, Sept. 21 with a low flyby northbound to Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay area. Then, the aircraft will travel south, making a pass over NASA's Ames Research Center, Vandenberg Air Force Base and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory before heading into the Los Angeles area.

Finally, the SCA and Endeavour will land about noon PDT at Los Angeles International Airport, for an arrival ceremony before Endeavour is taken off the SCA and transported to its permanent home at the California Science Center next month.

There is a "

Spot The Shuttle" page on NASA's Flickr stream where people have been uploading their images of the shuttle flying over, so check them out here.

This video shows excited students and faculty at the University of Arizona watching the shuttle fly over campus:

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