Space Shuttle Endeavour at the California Science Museum

By Stephen, on June 14th, 2013

The Space Shuttle Endeavour was in a temporary facility when we went to see it in January at the California Science Museum near USC, just south of downtown Los Angeles. It was exciting to see it, and, though it was crowded, we didn’t have to waste too much time getting in to see it. We had tickets with reservation times, but there are lots of exhibits to look at while the crowd moves through to the the shuttle. Those were somewhat interesting, though some of them were very tailored to kids.

Rather than lots of description here, I’ve put short captions of the pictures below, so click through and take a look.

: Used shuttle tires! Part of the exhibit on the way to the main attraction.

: Note the spelling of “Endeavour.” And the control jets.

: Near the entrance to the hall, we stopped to pose in front of the Endeavour.

: The photo of my wife is better lit than the one of me, because of the ability of the respective photographers.

: One of the tiles looks broken, and many look a bit worn.

: The view along the shuttle’s side.

: The tiles are all individually numbered, and some have to be oddly shaped.

: The bay door hinges are visible on the side of the shuttle.

: A close up view of the skin above the thermal tiles near the start of the wing. Short people would have trouble taking that picture.

: I like how they painted the flag in the direction it would go if it were “flying” while the shuttle moves.

: It’s pretty amazing to walk under the Endeavour! It is mounted tall enough that even I could walk under it. I could have reached up and touched it, but didn’t because I didn’t want to be thrown out.