Credit: NASA/Carla ThomasĮndeavour was delivered to L.A. 21, 2012, as it toured California to close out its flight career. The Space Shuttle Endeavour soars over the Golden Gate Bridge atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft on Sept. After Endeavour touched down for the last time June 1, 2011, NASA began preparing to the shuttle for its forever home at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. When Endeavour launched on its final mission in May 2011, it brought spare parts to the International Space Station and delivered a the $2-billion astrophysics experiment: the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. With the shuttles now a decade into retired life, Astronomy spoke to the curators of Endeavour and Atlantis to learn more these historic crafts’ new missions. Thousands of hours have been spent to ensure that their exhibits tell each orbiter’s story and preserving it for generations. Credit: ZGFĪs retired space relics, the orbiters inspire, teach, and astound visitors who venture into their exhibits. The Space Shuttle Endeavour will be the only shuttle to be displayed in its vertical, stacked configuration when the construction of its new home, the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, is completed, depicted here in a rendering. And Endeavour is getting an update to its permanent museum home at the California Science Center. Each one is curated to showcase its history and as a reminder of each shuttle’s scientific contributions.Įarlier this year, Atlantis celebrated its 10th anniversary since it was welcomed to its permanent home at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Since then, the three remaining space-flown shuttles, Discovery, Endeavour, and Atlantis, have been put on public display in museums across the United States. The shuttle program came to an end when Atlantis touched down at the Kennedy Space Center on July 21, 2011. In that time, astronauts helped build and maintain the International Space Station and deployed laboratories and satellites to space. In its 30-year history since beginning in 1981, the Space Shuttle Program’s fleet - Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour - flew 135 missions, clocking in at a total of 1,334 days, 1 hour, 36 minutes, and 44 seconds in space. Most prominently, it marked the regular usage of the first reusable spacecraft to carry humans into low Earth orbit. "What makes this program happen is the people that support it.The space shuttle era was a time of many firsts for space exploration. "Asthe program winds down, we want to retain our critical people, that's probablyour number-one challenge," Hale said. Haleexplained that preserving NASA's current workforce will be essential to theachieving the agency's goals. "It's abig job putting together the International Space Station, but we're going totake it one step at a time," Hale said, adding that maximizing the use ofeach flight will be necessary. While orbiting above Earth, theastronauts will also deliver ISS supplies, spare parts, make repairs to thegrowing station and conduct a handful of experiments.Īs NASAreadies Endeavour for launch, however, the agency is also mindful of completingthe ISS with a space shuttle fleet set toretire in 2010. The STS-118mission's overarching goal is to continue assembly of the space laboratory, andprime it for further construction. During the NASA's Teacher in Space program,Morgan served as the backup for New Hampshire high school teacher Christa McAuliffe, whodied along with six other astronauts on Januaboard the shuttleChallenger. Teacher-turned-spaceflyerBarbaraMorgan, NASA's first professional educator astronaut, is trained as one ofthe crew's mission specialists.
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