A year later, it was launched on a service repair mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.Įndeavour flew 25 times, mostly to supply the International Space Station. Six years after the Challenger tragedy, during Endeavour's first flight, three spacewalking astronauts made a daring rescue of a stranded communications satellite. Fourteen astronauts died in the accidents. NASA lost a second shuttle, Columbia, which broke apart during re-entry in 2003. Known as the baby shuttle, Endeavour replaced Challenger, which exploded during liftoff in 1986. Unlike a return from orbit, no ear-splitting twin sonic booms accompanied the latest return. "It doesn't glide very well."Įndeavour's maiden voyage into space two decades ago ended with a planned touchdown at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center based at Edwards. "Landing a space shuttle is not easy," he said. Kelley said seeing the shuttle reminded him how difficult it was to land. Karamargin said Giffords was "elated" and started "hooting and hollering" when she spotted Endeavour. The couple watched from the roof of a University of Arizona parking garage.įormer Giffords aide C.J.
Before retiring from her House seat, she was a member of the House committee on science, space and technology.
Kelly requested that Endeavour pass over Tucson to honour Giffords, who is recovering after suffering a head wound in a shooting rampage last year. Crowds craned their necks skyward as the shuttle circled low over Florida's Space Coast and Houston.Īfter refuelling in El Paso, Texas, Thursday, it flew over the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, an emergency shuttle landing site used once. Early Wednesday, it departed from its Cape Canaveral, Florida, home base, soared over NASA centres in Mississippi and Louisiana, and made a layover in Houston, home of Mission Control. Next stop: Los Angeles International Airport, where Endeavour will be prepped for a slow ride on a special flatbed trailer through city streets next month to its final destination as a museum showpiece.Įndeavour's highly anticipated homecoming was twice delayed by stormy weather along the Gulf of Mexico. The shuttle and jumbo jet take off again after sunrise Friday to make low, sweeping passes over Sacramento, San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Los Angeles. Later in the day, a 747 jet carrying Endeavour swooped out of the desert sky and glided down a concrete runway at Edwards Air Force Base, 100 miles (160 kilometres) north of Los Angeles, not far from where the now-retired shuttle fleet was assembled. "That's my spaceship," said Endeavour's last commander, Mark Kelly, as the couple watched the shuttle loop over Tucson, Arizona. Gabrielle Giffords and her astronaut husband. 30, the shuttle will be on display in the science center’s Samuel Oschin Space Shuttle Endeavour Display Pavilion, embarking on its new mission to commemorate past achievements in space and educate and inspire future generations of explorers.LOS ANGELES - Space shuttle Endeavour returned to its California roots Thursday after a wistful cross-country journey that paid homage to NASA workers and former Arizona Rep. Endeavour then will travel through Inglewood and Los Angeles city streets on a 12-mile journey from the airport to the science center, arriving in the evening on Oct. 20.Īfter arrival at LAX, Endeavour will be removed from the SCA and spend a few weeks at a United Airlines hangar undergoing preparations for transport and display. The flight concludes with low-level flyovers of many Los Angeles sites prior to landing at Los Angeles International Airport at about 11 a.m. 20, the SCA and Endeavour will take off from Dryden and perform low-level flyovers in the Palmdale, Lancaster, and Rosamond areas before the SCA-Endeavour combo heads to Northern California for a loop around Sacramento, San Francisco and NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field near San Jose. 19, the aircraft will depart Houston, make a refueling stop at Biggs Army Airfield in El Paso, Texas, and conduct low-level flyovers of White Sands Test Facility near Las Cruces, N.M., and NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California, before landing around mid-day at Dryden.
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