Space shuttle Endeavour craned into place for museum exhibit

Early on the morning of 30 January, the space shuttle Endeavour was lifted into place at its museum-exhibit at the California Science Center.

The 450ft/137m tall crane installed Endeavour at its designated spot, “In a massive and technically challenging process that has never before been accomplished outside of a NASA or Air Force facility,” museum representatives said.

The crane lift marks the culmination of ‘Go for Stack,’ a six-month-long effort to get Endeavour, its two solid rocket boosters and its external fuel tank into their final vertical configuration, as they looked on launch day.

The museum says, “The future Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center is a major expansion of the California Science Center and will be Endeavour’s permanent home. Construction is expected to continue for the next 18 months, followed by artifact and exhibit installation. An opening date has not yet been announced.”

Endeavour, NASA’s youngest shuttle, flew 25 missions before the shuttle programme was retired in 2011.

The agency’s other surviving space-flown shuttles, Discovery and Atlantis, are at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia and the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, respectively.

You can see a video of the process on California Science Centre’s YouTube channel or on its web page – it can also be seen on the LHI home page.

The picture is an aerial view of External Tank-94 (ET-94) as it is suspended from a crane in front of the two solid rocket boosters it will be mated to as part of the space shuttle Endeavour exhibit in the California Science Center’s Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center. Photo taken on Jan. 12, 2024.  (Image credit: California Science Center)