On May 7, 1992, millions of Americans watched as the first space shuttle built after the Challenger disaster, Endeavour, thundered into...
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Twenty years and 25 flights later, Endeavour is beginning its final mission, and Raytheon is playing a major role. On Oct. 12 and 13 a rolling platform moved the orbiter from Los Angeles International Airport to the California Science Center, where a new exhibit pavilion is being prepared for it. Raytheon sponsored the effort, known as Mission 26: The Big Endeavour to Help Bring Endeavour Home.
The new Samuel Oschin Space Shuttle Endeavour Display Pavilion will open on Oct. 30. In addition to the shuttle, the exhibit features a film,
Endeavour: The California Story that describes how the orbiters were assembled in nearby Palmdale.
Endeavour traveled 123 million miles during its two decades of service. Its crews performed maintenance on the Hubble Space Telescope, hauled sections of the International Space Station into orbit and conducted dozens of science experiments.
The shuttle carried the first African-American female astronaut, Mae Jemison; the first Japanese astronaut, Mamoru, Mohri; and the first married couple, Mark Lee and Jan Davis.
Endeavour’s new mission will be to “inspire current and future generations of innovators and explorers,” according to the California Science Center.
The shuttle's new home is just 10 miles from the headquarters of Raytheon’s Space and Airborne Systems, which is developing the next generation of satellites, space sensors and radars.
The orbiter was a replacement for the Challenger, which was destroyed in a 1986 accident that killed seven astronauts. U.S. schoolchildren named the new spacecraft Endeavour after the ship of British explorer James Cook.
