NASA - Space Shuttle Endeavour on the move

Space shuttle Endeavour is seen atop NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA, at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Monday, Sept. 17, 2012 in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

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. This is the final ferry flight scheduled in the Space Shuttle Program era.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

The retired Space Shuttle Endeavour Last Controversial Voyage - Video

Los Angeles to Remove 400 Trees for Space... The retired Space Shuttle Endeavour is gearing up for its final trip to Los Angeles’ California Science Center. Much like Explorer, which made a long, slow trek through Houston streets with all the street lights removed to make room for its passage before being immediately replaced behind it, Endeavour is facing a challenging drive from the Los Angeles airport to its destination. The shuttle is approximately five stories tall, precluding it from passing under overpasses – thereby eliminating a highway route. The plan is to take Endeavour down a scenic route of residential streets. The only problem: many of those streets are tree-lined. The region is in the process of cutting down 400 trees to make room for the shuttle’s passage. While officials have embraced the opportunity to host Endeavour and are planning to plant twice as many saplings to make up for the downed trees, some residents are not at all happy with the plan. “It’s unacceptable to cut down oxygen-giving species just to let something pass by,” Johnnie Raines, a board member of the west area neighbourhood council, reported. “I would love to see the shuttle housed here but I don’t think we should lose trees that are 40, 60 years old.” The California Science Center reports that its foundation has donated more than $1.5 million for greening improvements in the affected areas and routes were chosen to correspond with areas that were already looking to remove trees of invasive species or incompatible with traffic and air quality plans. Endeavour is scheduled to parade through southern Los Angeles on October 12-13, its 24m wingspan sweeping through treeless streets on its final 19 km voyage.

NASA Shuttle Endeavour: Coming Home

This view of the port side of space shuttle Endeavour's cargo bay was recorded after separation from the International Space Station on Feb. 19, 2010, as the STS-130 astronauts prepared for a Feb. 21 landing, after spending over a week working in tandem with the Expedition 22 crew members aboard the station.

Other than the docking system hardware, the cargo bay is empty after delivering the Tranquility node and the new cupola to the orbital outpost.

Image Credit: NASA

Space Shuttle Endeavour to deliver Tranquility module incl. ESA Cupola

Space Shuttle Endeavour is to deliver on February 9 a new technological module, Tranquility, to the International Space Station for its U.S. segment, a NASA expert said Friday.

This picture gives you a very good artist's impression of the module which includes the Cupola observation windows developed and manufactured by ESA, as part of a barter agreement with NASA.

Click here for further information on ESA's Node 3 and Cupola

Members of the Apollo 11 mission, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, stepped down from the lunar lander onto the moon's Sea of Tranquility on July 20, 1969. The Tranquility module was named in honor of this event's 40th anniversary.

Tranquility will make waste water recycling and oxygen regeneration easier.

The shuttle, to be launched February 7, will carry six astronauts who are to hook Tranquility up during spacewalks. The shuttle fleet is to sated to be mothballed in the autumn of 2010, unless it's replacement is not ready.

Without the Shuttle vehicles the US Space Agency, ESA and its partners are dependent on Russia's RSA to uplift astronauts and large components to the ISS.