Endeavour passes obstacle, heads towards LA museum
Source: Agencies |
October 14, 2012, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
SLOWLY surmounting a key obstacle, the United States shuttle Endeavour maintained a heading yesterday through the streets of Los Angeles toward its retirement home at a museum.
Endeavour's final mission began when it departed from the Los Angeles International Airport before dawn on Friday, rolling on a 160-wheeled carrier past diamond-shaped "Shuttle Xing" signs.
Friday evening it stopped as crews spent hours transferring the shuttle to a special, lighter towing dolly. Then around midnight, it traveled over a bridge across Interstate 405, an especially tricky part of the complicated journey because of the size of the space craft and width of the bridge.
The shuttle was pulled across the Manchester Boulevard bridge by a Toyota Tundra pickup, and the car company filmed the event for a commercial after paying for a permit, turning the entire scene into a movie set complete with special lighting, sound and staging.
Police stopped traffic on the freeway below for the duration of the traverse, which took about three minutes.
Crews preparing for the crossing had to take down power lines, leaving about 400 residents of surrounding Inglewood without power for what was expected to be several hours.
Once on the other side, crews began the lengthy process of returning it to the original carrier, before resuming its journey early yesterday.
On Friday, hundreds of camera-toting spectators, some with pajama-clad children in tow, gaped as the 77,000-kilogram Endeavour inched by with its tail towering over streetlights and its wings spanning the roadway.
Over two days, it will trundle 19 kilometers at a top speed of 3 kph to its final destination - the California Science Center where it will be the centerpiece of a new exhibit. It's expected to reach the museum sometime yesterday evening.
The baby of the shuttle fleet, Endeavour replaced Challenger, which exploded during liftoff in 1986, killing seven astronauts. It thundered off the launch pad 25 times, orbited Earth nearly 4,700 times and racked up 198 million kilometers.
Transporting Endeavour required a specialized carrier typically used to haul oil rigs, bridges and heavy equipment. The wheels can spin in any direction, allowing the shuttle to zigzag past obstacles.
Endeavour's final mission began when it departed from the Los Angeles International Airport before dawn on Friday, rolling on a 160-wheeled carrier past diamond-shaped "Shuttle Xing" signs.
Friday evening it stopped as crews spent hours transferring the shuttle to a special, lighter towing dolly. Then around midnight, it traveled over a bridge across Interstate 405, an especially tricky part of the complicated journey because of the size of the space craft and width of the bridge.
The shuttle was pulled across the Manchester Boulevard bridge by a Toyota Tundra pickup, and the car company filmed the event for a commercial after paying for a permit, turning the entire scene into a movie set complete with special lighting, sound and staging.
Police stopped traffic on the freeway below for the duration of the traverse, which took about three minutes.
Crews preparing for the crossing had to take down power lines, leaving about 400 residents of surrounding Inglewood without power for what was expected to be several hours.
Once on the other side, crews began the lengthy process of returning it to the original carrier, before resuming its journey early yesterday.
On Friday, hundreds of camera-toting spectators, some with pajama-clad children in tow, gaped as the 77,000-kilogram Endeavour inched by with its tail towering over streetlights and its wings spanning the roadway.
Over two days, it will trundle 19 kilometers at a top speed of 3 kph to its final destination - the California Science Center where it will be the centerpiece of a new exhibit. It's expected to reach the museum sometime yesterday evening.
The baby of the shuttle fleet, Endeavour replaced Challenger, which exploded during liftoff in 1986, killing seven astronauts. It thundered off the launch pad 25 times, orbited Earth nearly 4,700 times and racked up 198 million kilometers.
Transporting Endeavour required a specialized carrier typically used to haul oil rigs, bridges and heavy equipment. The wheels can spin in any direction, allowing the shuttle to zigzag past obstacles.
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