Endeavour’s Journey to LA Museum Delayed by Weather

Just like its 2009 mission delay due to weather, the final journey of space shuttle Endeavour has been postponed to Tuesday due to bad weather.

The space shuttle which is embarking on its last trip piggybacking a ride on Boeing 747 jet was supposed to depart from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., to Houston on Monday (Sept. 17) but the stormy weather forecast forced NASA to delay the flight by a day.

According to NASA, the space shuttle will do low-level flyover of various areas Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Patrick Air Force Base in Florida and other NASA centers in Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Northern and Southern California before arriving at the Los Angeles International Airport on the scheduled date of Sept. 20.

The shuttle, which is the youngest of NASA's fleet, will be taken to the California Science Center (CSC) in Los Angeles, which will be its final home.

 "We finally get to really show her off," NASA astronaut Kay Hire, who flew aboard Endeavour in 2010, told reporters on Sunday, according to Reuters.

"It's a great vehicle, but it was designed in the '70s. We've modified it along the way and it's certainly served us well, but it is time to move on."

Endeavour was built to replace another space shuttle Challenger which broke apart killing seven crew members aboard the shuttle in January 1986. The spacecraft began its flight operations in 1992 and has completed only 25 missions in 20 years, with a total of 299 days in space, reported Reuters.

Most of Endeavour's missions involved work to build the International Space Station, a research laboratory that is currently located some 250 miles above Earth.  The space shuttle's last mission was in May 2011 after which Endeavour retired along with two other sister spacecraft - Atlantis and Discovery.

Discovery embarked on its final journey to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington in April. While Endeavour will arrive in its permanent Los Angeles home this week, Atlantis will be put on public display at the Kennedy Space Center's Visitors Center in November.