Shuttle Endeavour Fly-Out

Shuttle Endeavour Fly-out departs for a three-day final tour by air perched on the back of a specialy equipped Boeing 747 (SCA NASA905) that will take it on a coast to coast mission to become permanent museum display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Twenty organizations submitted proposals to NASA for the display of an orbiter.

The flight to California featured low level flyovers over NASA and other landmarks across the United States and in California, landing at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on September 21, 2012. The orbiter was moved through tstreets in Los Angeles and Inglewood coming to rest at the California Science Center in Exposition Park

Congress authorized construction of Endeavour in 1987 to replace Challenger, which was lost in 1986 in a launch accident. Endeavour was constructed from structural spares manufactured during the construction of Discovery and Atlantis.

NASA chose to build Endeavour from spares rather than refitting the Shuttle Enterprise (OV-101), Enterprise was built for NASA as part of the Space Shuttle program to perform test flights in the atmosphere, It was constructed without engines or a functional heat shield and not capable as built of spaceflight. NASA also rejected a bid from Rockwell International proposal to build two shuttles for the price of one in the construction process.

Endeavour flew 25 missions carring a 154 crew members a total of 122,883,151 miles or 197,761,262 km spending  296 days, 3 hours, 34 minutes, 2 seconds in space completing 4,671orbits of the earth. Three satellites were deployed by Endeavour also docking at the Russian Mir station and 12 IIS dockings. Endeavour’s first flight was STS-49 May 7, 1992  landing May 16, 1992, Last flight was this ferry flight on SCA NASA905 to Los Angeles, California September 19–21, 2012

• September 19th to the 21st, 2012
• Endeavour Departs Kennedy for the Final time
• NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:22 a.m. EDT.,  Space shuttle Endeavour Fly’s over Cocoa Beach from the Shuttle Landing Facility runway before departing for California. The spacecraft is mounted atop NASA’s modified 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA
• The SCA, a modified 747 jetliner, will fly Endeavour to Los Angeles where it will be placed on public display at the California Science Center
• Due to atmospheric conditions these images are not of the best quality

NASA Reference: Shuttle Endeavour Fly-Out