Science fans will soon get the chance to see the Space Shuttle Endeavor in its ready-to-launch position at the California Science Center in Exposition Park this November.
The science center is expecting a large influx of visitors at the exhibit and is planning on setting up timed visits.
According to Jeffrey N. Rudolph, president and CEO of the California Science Center, the exhibit includes an introductory film talking about the shuttle, the people that worked on it and ends with Endeavor’s last launch.
The exhibit will open on Nov. 13 at the future Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center.
Science Center officials said the exhibit will be the only place in the world where visitors can view a complete, authentic space shuttle system in launch position. The display features the flown orbiter Endeavour attached to a pair of real solid rocket boosters and ET-94, the last remaining flight-qualified external tank.
“This is a view that nobody, really has ever gotten,” project director Dennis Jenkins said. Jenkins has also been part of other shuttle displays around the country in his over 30-year career. “When you walk in there, first thing you see is an entire stack of real hardware looking exactly like it did on the launchpad. It’s just awe inspiring.”
“The reveal here is fantastic, we spent a lot of time on it,” Jenkins said.
The shuttle stack stands nearly 200 feet tall, allowing visitors to walk beneath the orbiter’s main engines, view its open payload bay and ascend to elevated viewing platforms overlooking the spacecraft, according to
officials.
Construction of the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center was completed in April, nearly four years after groundbreaking on the project in June 2022.
The 200,000-square-foot addition nearly doubles the Science Center’s exhibit space and will house more than 100 aerospace artifacts and hands-on exhibits focused on aviation and space exploration, officials said.
Endeavour was lifted into its permanent vertical configuration in 2024 following a six-month assembly process known as “Go for Stack.” The orbiter, which flew 25 NASA missions between 1992 and 2011, has been on public display at the Science Center since arriving in Los Angeles in 2012.