A Space Shuttle goes vertical for one last time

For the first time in more than ten years, a Space Shuttle has been raised into launch position. Although the completed stack won't be seeing a launchpad any time soon. The Space Shuttle in question is Endeavour, which last flew in space on mission STS-134 in 2011. Endeavour was decommissioned after landing and shipped off to …

[Flak]

Exciting!

For anyone even remotely interested in the Space Shuttle this will be a 'must see'.

I was in NYC on the morning of 06 June 2012 when the Space Shuttle Enterprise came up the Hudson on a barge, to be lifted on to the Intrepid aircraft carrier - by the same crane which lifted UA1549 from the Hudson in 2009! Made our way down to the pier where hundreds of people had gathered to watch the spectacle. It took about 3 hours to attach the lifting frame and then lift the shuttle up on the flight deck of the Intrepid. Would love to go see it now.

The Endeavour in its new location will no doubt be spectacular! Just hope it will still be accessible - even in the vertical position.

[WonkoTheSane]

Re: Exciting!

I visited Endeavour in October 2016, when they began fundraising for this move, and again in October 2023, only 2 days after the solid rocket booster shells* arrived on site.

* New Old Stock, but sadly unfuelled.

I will no doubt visit Endeavour again in another few years.

[heyrick]

That's what they want you to believe

It's in California because that's where the tech tycoons hang out. It'll be an "exhibit", secretly fuelled and stocked and if the proverbial should hit the ventilation device, then they'll crowd in and get the hell off world and sit it out watching from afar.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: That's what they want you to believe

Mr. Bond, you defy all my attempts to plan an amusing death for you.

Hugo Drax has to be the best Bond villain (sorry Mr Lee but your island lair wasn't as good and your henchman came up short)

[imanidiot]

Re: That's what they want you to believe

Without enormous amounts of hydrogen and oxygen liquefaction equipment, with SRBs that (even if they were fueled) would have a limited lifetime (about 2 years from pouring iirc) and without an enormous flame trench to redirect exhaust and shockwaves away from the shuttle, the only place it would be going from there would be nowhere.

[spacecadet66]

Re: That's what they want you to believe

The best evidence for this is that there's no hint of any of this happening at all: means they've been very thorough about covering their tracks.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Skyhooks

>Presenting a 200-foot-tall (61 meter) Space Shuttle stack in an earthquake zone does, after all, carry its own challenges.

Just hang it up in the air, with skyhooks

[I ain't Spartacus]

Re: Skyhooks

We'll need pulleys to fix the skyhooks. Go to the stores and ask for a long weight.

While you're there, you could pick up some tartan paint as well, to cover the extenal fuel tank.

Oh, and this is special NASA gear. We'll need a left handed screwdrive.

[spacecadet66]

Re: Skyhooks

Sorry, broke the last left-handed screwdriver opening a stubborn can of polka-dot paint.

[Bitbeisser]

Well, you can see that "stack" from the 110 freeway here in DTLA, or the Expo Line railway line going from DTLA to Santa Monica.