Space nerds, rejoice! A fully-stacked, 20-story tall space shuttle will soon be on display at a brand new exhibit, appearing as though it’s ready to soar to the skies once more. The California Science Center has announced that its long-anticipated Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center will open to the public on November 13, kicking off the final mission of the Space Shuttle Endeavour. The retired orbiter will be on permanent display at its new home in Los Angeles, boasting a vertical, ready-to-launch position as the museum’s centerpiece. A legendary run Endeavour was NASA’s fifth and final space shuttle, built to replace the lost Challenger orbiter. Its maiden voyage was in May 1992, when crew members pulled-off a daring spacewalk to capture a stranded satellite so that it could be repaired and launched again. Endeavour also took part in the first servicing and repair mission of the Hubble space telescope in 1993. Over the course of 12 missions, Endeavour helped in the assembly and servicing of the International Space Station (ISS).
Endeavour landed for the final time on June 1, 2011, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida after a 16-day mission to the ISS. Following that landing, only one other Shuttle mission took place, the Atlantis STS-135 mission, marking the end of NASA’s 30-year-long shuttle era, which began in 1981.
