Althouse: Space shuttle Endeavour makes its final journey... through the streets of L.A. to a science museum.

October 17, 2012

Space shuttle Endeavour makes its final journey... through the streets of L.A. to a science museum.

The time-lapse video is oddly poignant.

28 comments:

Larry J said...: What would've been the outcome had the skateboard riot taken place near Endeavour? Well, this is what could've happened.; 10/17/12, 1:25 PM
Amexpat said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/17/12, 1:26 PM
Amexpat said...: More moving than transporting a boulder through LA.; 10/17/12, 1:28 PM
PatCA said...: I thought it was really sad. The shuttle program was just enchanting.

But then I heard Adam Carolla say, hey, we are so advanced that we are retiring this shuttle because it's out of date.

So, positive spin.; 10/17/12, 1:33 PM
ricpic said...: Goodbye traditional America of magnificent striving.; 10/17/12, 1:34 PM
Tibore said...: It went through a residential area? Wow. Man, that'd be cool, sitting out on your deck and watching the Space Shuttle be trucked past.; 10/17/12, 1:40 PM
Tibore said...: From Apollo 13, a sentiment that applies:

"Farewell Aquarius, and we thank you."

Yes. Farewell Endeavor. We thank you too.; 10/17/12, 1:42 PM
bagoh20 said...: At 0:27 it is right behind my house (visible from my kitchen), and through )0:40 it's in my neighborhood. Still, I never saw it. I was probably distracted by this damned blog.; 10/17/12, 1:44 PM
Methadras said...: ricpic said...

Goodbye traditional America of magnificent striving.

Hello, underwhelming muslim outreach from a weakened nation.; 10/17/12, 1:45 PM
ndspinelli said...: Was AC Cowlings driving?; 10/17/12, 1:46 PM
Ruth Anne Adams said...: What was visible in the front windows? I swear it was Otto the Autopilot.; 10/17/12, 1:53 PM
MadisonMan said...: BagOh -- that's so cool that it went down your street. (envy); 10/17/12, 1:54 PM
Anonymous said...: Like a great avian Gulliver moving through Lilliput.; 10/17/12, 1:59 PM
bagoh20 said...: Often, there were only inches on each side. A year of planning to go 14 miles. 400 trees had to be cut. Many thousands of people lining the streets. Not even one arrest, and the lowest crime weekend in months.

It's probably the largest white thing that ever survived a weekend in L.A. without getting tagged since Rosey O'Donnell was in town to proclaim fire cannot melt steel. Two symbols of the high and low of our educational system; 10/17/12, 2:11 PM
Darrell said...: The B-O-ing of America.
Sad.
Once we were great.; 10/17/12, 2:16 PM
bagoh20 said...: I'm sorry for any confusion, but when I said "Often, there were only inches on each side." I was referring to the Rosey. The shuttle fit fine.; 10/17/12, 2:41 PM
n.n said...: The world's only "superpower" no longer has a manned space program. It has voluntarily ceded its advanced position to, ostensibly, permit yesteryear's powers to recover their prominence.; 10/17/12, 2:49 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: "Space shuttle Endeavour makes its final journey... through the streets of L.A. to a science museum."

No doubt they will put a plaque in front of it listing all the scientific discoveries it made possible. A really, really small plaque.; 10/17/12, 3:19 PM
Larry J said...: I've worked with space systems (mostly military) for over 20 years. It was time to retire the Shuttle. Bush 43 made the decision following the Columbia accident and it was a sound one. The Shuttle was very expensive to fly, took thousands of people to maintain and was dangerous.

There is more happening in space today than in a long time. Private companies like SpaceX and Orbital are flying (or are about to fly) privately developed boosters for ISS resupply. SpaceX, Boeing and Sierra Nevada are working on commercial manned spacecraft to carry people into low earth orbit (LEO). Bigelow Aerospace is working on developing a private space station and has had two test modules in orbit for several years.

On the government side, NASA has spent $5 billion to develop the Orion capsule. Congress directed NASA spend $2 billion a year to develop a heavy lift booster called the SLS. Whether that is money well spent is a matter for heated discussion in the space community.

I was born in the year of Sputnik and truth be told, these are the most interesting times for space since the Apollo era.; 10/17/12, 3:28 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: It looks like a ants find getting carried back to the colony.; 10/17/12, 3:39 PM
john said...: bagoh20 said...
At 0:27 it is right behind my house (visible from my kitchen), and through )0:40 it's in my neighborhood.

Bag0 - at 0.33 is a massage parlor sign. Is that your place?; 10/17/12, 3:42 PM
john said...: BTW, that is a beautiful video.; 10/17/12, 3:44 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: Endeavor only exists because the Challenger blew up. It was a replacement.

No replacement was built for Columbia.

The Shuttle launch system was never safe, and killed the crew about one launch out of 50.

The Soviet, and then Russian, Soyuz craft has not lost a cosmonaut since 1972.; 10/17/12, 4:24 PM
PatCA said...: L.A. actually has some very nice people living there. A friend of mine's mother lived in Compton her whole life; it was fine. The media and politicians ignore them, of course, in the interest of sensationalism.

So this was good. Maybe a little rebranding was in order.; 10/17/12, 5:12 PM
Aridog said...: I was sitting in a quonset hut watching a grainy B/W video tape replay, in July 1969, over AFN of Apollo 11 and the moon landing. I was half a world away, mostly carried guns around a lot, and not much outside of the immediate situation impressed me in those days.

However, Apollo 11 took my breath away and I have been in awe of the astronauts, and the overall effort, governmental, military, and private sector, ever since. I knew how dangerous it really had to be, even though I wasn't privy to why. Just instinct. When I watched Columbia break up on CNN live television in February 2003 my breath was again stopped short.

I've done some fun things, like race on skis, jump out of perfectly good aircraft, ride fine horses over solid fences at speed, and so forth. This month with Felix's astounding free fall and the memorializing of the space program, it dawns on me I ain't done shit.

But I've been a witness.; 10/17/12, 5:38 PM
Art in LA said...: Not sure why you consider this "oddly poignant". I was lucky enough to see the Endeavour flyover in Long Beach, CA. To me, it was "surprisingly sad", an end of an era ... like a funeral procession. We're supposed to be living in a better world here in the 21st Century, post Space Age, right?. On the other hand, I *loved* being a part of the big crowds ... all walks of life, no partisan bickering. Here is one government program where most Americans could see the value. "Endeavour for President!" ... we need more like her.; 10/17/12, 5:39 PM
bagoh20 said...: "Bag0 - at 0.33 is a massage parlor sign. Is that your place?"

Dammit! I only go for the reading material. They have great magazine like this one:

Cover; 10/17/12, 5:40 PM
cold pizza said...: It's too bad shuttle Enterprise was destroyed by Kirk. -CP; 10/17/12, 6:32 PM