Video by Matt Cohn
UPDATE 4:34PM | NASA has announced that the planned space shuttle flyovers for Friday, September 21 will be delayed by one hour to allow for fog in the San Francisco area to burn off. This puts the Long Beach flyover time between 11:30AM and 1PM.
Also, officials at the Queen Mary said that they will be offering free admission for those who would like to watch the flyover from the ship’s sun deck. Just mention “Endeavor” at the box office to be let in.
NASA’s modified Boeing 747 carrier aircraft carrying the Space Shuttle Endeavour lands at Edwards Air Force Base on Sept. 20. Photo by Dryden TV courtesy of NASA.
ORIGINAL 1:30PM | It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a…space shuttle!? Yup!
Friday, September 21, sometime after 10:30AM, Long Beach will bear witness to the Space Shuttle Endeavor as it flies low over Queen Mary and the Aquarium while mounted on top of a specially designed NASA 747. Seeing the shuttle up close in this way isn’t just a once-in-a-lifetime event, experts say—it’s a once-ever event.
The shuttle—which has been retired as part of the dismantling of NASA’s space shuttle program—is being flown around several California cities at altitudes of as low as 1500 feet before being transported by vehicle through 12 miles of city streets to its final resting place at the California Science Center in Exposition Park in Los Angeles.
After landing at Edwards Air Force Base in Lancaster earlier this morning after a four-stop trip from Kennedy Air Force Base in Florida, Endeavor is preparing for a busy day tomorrow. It will leave Edwards at around 7:15AM, flying low over Lancaster, Palmdale and Mojave before heading up to Northern California for flyovers at the State Capitol building in Sacramento, science centers in San Francisco and multiple Air Force bases along the coast on its way back to Los Angeles.
Once back in L.A. airspace, the Endeavor is scheduled to continue its piggy-back ride for at least an hour, passing local landmarks like the Getty Center, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and, of course, the Aquarium of the Pacific, where NASA’s Our Instrumented Earth exhibit is expected to open next year.
There is no way to determine the exact time that Endeavor will fly over Long Beach, but NASA expects it to enter L.A. airspace around 10:30AM and land at LAX at around 12PM. Top viewing points will most likely be Bluff Park, Signal Hill or the lighthouse at Shoreline Park.
After landing at LAX, the Endeavor will dismount from its 747 carrier and on October 12, be moved to its new permanent home in what will be an unprecedented slow-motion journey through 12 miles of urban streets. The shuttle will be available for public viewing on October 30 at the Science Center’s to-be-opened Samuel Oschin Space Shuttle Endeavour Display Pavilion.
View Space Shuttle Endeavour Fly-Over Locations in a larger map