Last September the Space Shuttle Endeavour had its final
flight, atop a 747, and made a farewell tour of California. The building where I work allowed people up
to the 57th floor to observe the flyover of Los Angeles, a thrilling
opportunity for a lifelong follower of the space program like me.
That, of course, was before Coccinelle’s time with me, but
Endeavour’s permanent home is now at the California Science Center right here
in LA, so we had to go and see her.
The Science Center is just past the southern end of
downtown, so we decided to take the Metro, a light rail system that travels
both above and below ground. The
station we left from is underneath an office building, and if you look up as
you go down the escalator, you’ll see the work of a fantastic muralist called
Terry Schoonhoven which depicts what you might see from that same vantage point
if the building overhead weren’t in the way:
We got off one stop too soon and had to walk a bit to get to
the Science Center, which is in Exposition Park and part of a complex of
museums.
There is a lot to see at the Science Center on a wide range
of subjects. We concentrated on the
ones related to flight and aeronautics.
There are real used-in-space capsules from the Mercury,
Gemini, and Apollo programs (which preceded the shuttles). They’re encapsulated in form-fitting
plexiglas, but the hatches are open so you can peek inside.
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| Mercury capsule - one astronaut |
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| Gemini capsule - two astronauts |
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| Apollo capsule - three astronauts |
An entire section is devoted to Endeavour with displays and
artifacts from missions, lots of information, and a short film. One of the first things you see you can also
touch: tires from the vehicle:
This is part of a small recreation of Mission Control Center:
And we took a ride in a shuttle flight simulator!
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| Liftoff! |
But of course, our reason for coming was to see Endeavour,
which is in a building of its own. This
is what you see when you first walk in:
There are lots of informational panels and a number of
secondary displays:
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| SpaceHab - a sort of popup tent for use inside the cargo bay which could provide additional working room for the crew |
But the shuttle is the star of the show:
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| Crew Hatch |
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| Heat tiles - each one is numbered for placement |
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| Engines |
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| Nose to tail panorama shot |
It was hard to leave, but the time had come…although not
before spying more of Coccinelle’s cousins in a display for the gift shop!
In the park area across from the Science Center, Coccinelle
was fascinated by some of our city dwellers:
Then it was onto the Metro and the end of another great
outing:
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