Space Shuttle Endeavour Opens in New Los Angeles Home

The California Science Center opened its Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center to the public on Friday, featuring space shuttle Endeavour displayed in a nearly 200-foot-tall launch configuration. The morning grand opening program was followed by a 10 a.m. ribbon-cutting and public opening at the science center, located at 700 Exposition Park Drive in Los Angeles.

Astronauts attended the event, including all six crew members from Endeavour's final mission, STS-134, which was commanded by now- 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. “They'll be inspired to explore, and they will dream about the futures.”

Endeavour is displayed with authentic solid rocket boosters and an external tank, creating what the science center describes as the only complete, authentic space shuttle system on view anywhere in the world. The 200,000-square-foot expansion nearly doubles the science center's exhibit space and includes 100 aerospace artifacts alongside 100 hands-on exhibits focused on science and engineering.

New Exhibits and Multilevel Galleries

The shuttle gallery rises nearly 200 feet and includes a 140-foot elevator ride up the launch stack to a glass-floor observation platform above the orbiter. Other exhibits let visitors try a shuttle landing simulator, sit inside a replica flight deck, and descend a 45-foot slide designed to evoke the shuttle's return through Earth's atmosphere. The center features 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, as well as part of a Korean Air Boeing 747-400. Visitors can experience a five-minute simulated flight from Los Angeles to Seoul, according to the center. The space gallery includes flown spacecraft, such as the Mercury-Redstone 2 capsule, Gemini 11 capsule, and Apollo-Soyuz Command Module. It also features exhibits developed with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, including models and replicas representing six decades of robotic exploration.

Free astronaut and aerospace talks are scheduled every half-hour during the grand opening weekend, running Friday through Sunday. Additionally, a photo exhibit titled “Endeavour's Long Journey,” which documents the shuttle's final flight over California, its 12-mile, 68-hour trip through Los Angeles and Inglewood, and its vertical installation at the center, opened on Friday in the Weingart Foundation Special Exhibits Gallery on the third floor.