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With motorists looking on, 116-foot-long rocket engines roll toward LA for reunion with shuttle

October 10, 2023

The space shuttle Endeavor solid rocket boosters leave the Mojave Air and Space Port on to highway 58 on their way to the California Science Center museum Tuesday Mojave CA/USA. Oct 10, 2023. The boosters will be transported by freeway until the last leg of their journey to the California Science Center.
(Photo by Gene Blevins/Contributing Photographer)

The space shuttle Endeavor solid rocket boosters leave the Mojave Air and Space Port on to highway 395 on their way to the California Science Center museum Tuesday Kramer Junction CA/USA. Oct 10, 2023. The boosters will be transported by freeway until the last leg of their journey to the California Science Center.
(Photo by Gene Blevins/Contributing Photographer)

The space shuttle Endeavor solid rocket boosters leave the Mojave Air and Space Port on their way to the California Science Center museum Tuesday Mojave CA/USA. Oct 10, 2023. The boosters will be transported by freeway until the last leg of their journey to the California Science Center.
(Photo by Gene Blevins/Contributing Photographer)

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Two mammoth space-age Solid Rocket Motors started their journey on Tuesday, Oct. 10 to a high-profile — and eventually vertical — reunion with the Space Shuttle Endeavour in Los Angeles’ Exposition Park.

Heavy-duty big rigs pulled the massive engines — donated by Northrop Grumman — from hangars where they’d been stored at the Mojave Air and Space Port north of Lancaster and set out on the road to L.A. Motorists got an eyeful as the motors, each measuring 116 feet long and more than 12 feet in diameter, rolled toward the city. Each one weighs 104,000 pounds.

The public is being invited to view the arrival as the motors are hauled off the Harbor (110) Freeway and driven along Figueroa Street and into the California Science Center on Wednesday morning.

Beginning at 7:30 a.m. the rocket motors will be hauled north on Figueroa Street from 43rd Place to 39th Street. When the motors reach Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard at 8 a.m., they will pause for an extended photo opportunity before officially moving to the Science Center at 9 a.m. The Science Center will open early at 9 a.m. Wednesday for the arrival celebration.

The arrival of the motors will occur 11 years to the day that Endeavour began its captivating cross-town journey from LAX to the Science Center.

The rocket motors are the major components of the twin Solid Rocket Boosters that were used to propel the shuttles into space, using fuel from a connected massive external tank. All of the launch components — the shuttle, rocket boosters and fuel tank — will be included in the vertical display of Endeavour at its new home in the $400 million, 200,000-square-foot Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center.

When completed, the display will be the only vertical, launch-ready configuration of a shuttle in the world.

The California Science Center artist rending of what the new space gallery will look like at the official ground breaking for its new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, which will become the permanent home of NASA’s retired space shuttle Endeavour Los Angeles CA, Wednesday, June 1, 2022.(Photo by Gene Blevins/Contributing Photographer)

Endeavour has been on display horizontally at the Science Center for 11 years. The massive external fuel tank is already at the Science Center, awaiting its upright positioning in the new display.

Delivery of the Solid Rocket Motors is one of the last major components needed for the arrangement. CSC officials in July officially began the process of creating the vertical display, in what they have dubbed a “Go for Stack” process.

The six-month process began in July with the installation of the rocket booster aft skirts. The next phase will be the move of the rocket motors and other components of the Solid Rocket Boosters into vertical position, followed by the placement of the External Fuel Tank, known as ET-94, into place.

The final component will be the delicate move of the shuttle itself across Exposition Park and the use of a crane to lift it into its vertical display, which will tower 200 feet into the air. The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center that will house the display will then be constructed around it, with opening planned in 2025.

52-ton space shuttle rocket motors will roll through LA Wednesday to reunite with Endeavour
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California Science Center to start complex process to display space shuttle Endeavour vertically

City News Service contributed to this report.

Orange County Register

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With motorists looking on, 116-foot-long rocket engines roll toward LA for reunion with shuttle

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