September 2012 - Space Shuttle Endeavour Returns to Southern California
The 40-year history of America's space shuttle program came full circle as Endeavour, the last space shuttle to be built, returned to its Southern California birthplace on September 21, 2012.
Latched on to the top of a modified Boeing 747 jetliner, the shuttle became a public spectacle soaring freely over urban Los Angeles, calling city workers to see it from the top of L.A. City Hall, schoolchildren to view it from their schoolyards, and visitors packing the grounds of the Griffith Observatory for a glimpse. The shuttle's landing at L.A. International Airport even caused cars on the 105 Freeway to stop and witness history.
The flight was outshone by an even more intimate public event weeks later, on October 11-14, 2012, as the orbiter was being slowly transported from LAX to its current home at the California ScienCenter via the streets of Inglewood and Los Angeles, albeit not without controversy.
Built to replace the space shuttle Challenger, which was destroyed seconds after takeoff in January 1986, Endeavour was first launched into space on May 7, 1992. Earlier that week, on the other side of the country, rioting, looting, and arson fires broke out on the streets of South Los Angeles and spread across the city, stemming from the verdict of the Rodney King beating trial.
Twenty years later, the same streets where violence and civil disobedience erupted in 1992 were the gathering places for hundreds of thousands of Southern Californians to peacefully and joyfully share patriotic pride, the wonder of space travel, and the communal celebration of a homecoming parade.
Endeavour, along with its five shuttle siblings, were all built by aerospace company Rockwell International at its facility in Downey, with final assembly at Rockwell's factory in Palmdale. Since its initial planning in the early 1970s, hundreds of individuals and families were supported through the paychecks of what was one of our largest industries, building a product that remains one of America's greatest technological achievements.
Though the space shuttle program has ended, Southern California's aerospace heritage continues through the presence of Hawthorne-based company SpaceX and Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipOne in Mojave.
