Space Shuttle Endeavor Lands In Los Angeles After Final Flight 111
Today the space shuttle Endeavor completed its final ferry flight, landing in Los Angeles, California after leaving Edwards Air Force Base earlier today. The shuttle will now undergo preparations for its journey through the streets of L.A. (at a cost of 400+ trees) to its final resting place at the California Science Center. It'll go on public display October 30. Endeavor spent over 296 days in space throughout 25 missions, comprising 4,671 orbits that added up to over 197 million kilometers of travel. Slashdot's own Kaushik Acharya was at the Griffith Observatory in L.A. for the flyover, and he provided some great pictures of Endeavor's passing.
Sacramento freeway came to a crawl (Score:5, Interesting)
I just happened to be on US 50 in the Sacramento area when it flew overhead. Traffic slowed to a crawl to get a peek, some people just stopped. Very cool that these things can cause that type of reaction - even as they're being mothballed.
Unfortunately the spectacle caused more than a few fender benders.
Tough time tracking it (Score:5, Interesting)
Twitter was nearly useless, with all the chaff and incomplete information "It's over my house! #spottheshuttle" Where is your house?!? Blah blah blah I'm standing on a roof and NASA coverage, which was replays of the previous day's flight. We finally found a USTREAM from Ames and after watching it pass out of the frame we all scampered outside to wait, as it wouldn't be long. Finally spotted it and I got a few pictures. Probably the most photographed object in the world, today.
Re:Saw It (Score:3, Interesting)
I saw Endeavour today as it headed south to overfly Moffett Field. End of an era, yes, and I do miss our nation's having a spacecraft, even one with the Shuttle's long list of flaws and shortcomings.
But we *are* doing quite a lot of stuff out there:
- We just landed a nuclear powered, laser-zapping mobile lab on Mars, and it's headed off to climb a mountain;
- Dawn recently lit up its ion drive and left orbit around the asteroid Vesta to visit another asteroid, Ceres;
- Cassini continues touring Saturn and its moons;
- Messenger is exploring Mercury from orbit;
- Opportunity is still wandering around on Mars, continuing eight years of exploration;
- We're still getting good data from Voyagers 1 and 2, over a third of a century after they were launched.
I've left stuff out, but you get my point. The space age has arrived, but in a different way and at a slower pace than most of us might have wanted. But it's here, and it's not going away.