Space Shuttle Endeavour

The Space Shuttle Endeavour is at the Samuel Oschin Space Shuttle Endeavour Display Pavilion at the California Science Center.

Named after the British HMS Endeavour, the ship which took Captain James Cook on his first voyage of discovery. Hence, the British English spelling, rather than the American English (“Endeavor”). The name also honored Endeavour, the Command Module of Apollo 15, which was also named after Cook’s ship.

Ever since, my father took me to Griffith Observatory as a child and bought me an astronomy chart, I was in love with space. When Endeavour did its fly over the southland on September 12, 2012, I stood at my employer’s large office windows and watched with a smile.

Space Shuttle Endeavour (Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-105) was the fifth and final NASA space shuttle to be built, and first flew in May 1992 on mission STS-49 with its last mission being STS-134 in May 2011. The STS-134 mission was originally planned as the final mission of the Space Shuttle program, but with authorization of the STS-135 mission, Atlantis became the last Space Shuttle to fly.

The United States Congress authorized the construction of Endeavour in 1987 to replace the Space Shuttle Challenger. That shuttle exploded two minutes into flight in 1986. To learn more about this national tragedy, visit the Space Shuttle Challenger Monument and Astronaut Ellison S. Onizuka Memorial in Little Tokyo.

The size of the shuttle is awe-inspiring. When you visit, look at the beautiful pictures of the Endeavour making its way through the streets of Los Angeles.

The California Science Center, also, has an External Tank (ET-94), which was the last flight-qualified ET in existence.