Endeavour Arrives at Final Home in LA Science Museum

Space Shuttle Endeavour reached its final home at the Los Angeles museum Sunday morning after several delays.

The retired space shuttle arrived at about 10:45 a.m. at Exposition Park, the site of the California Science Center, to be on permanent display, reported Reuters. Endeavour traveled for three days to cover a distance of 12 miles from the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to its final home.

The space shuttle was supposed to arrive at the science center Saturday (Oct. 13), but the shuttle's wide wingspan caused problems as it was wider than the tree-lined streets. Trees were trimmed; power lines and traffic lights were temporarily removed to clear the path.

On its final journey, Endeavour was mounted on a 160-wheeled carrier and was inched through the streets of L.A. amid loud cheers from spectators.

"I walked most of the route, and I can tell you that over a million people were so positive, so encouraging," science center president Jeffrey Rudolph told Space.com.

"All we heard was 'Wow! Thank you!' and young people saying, 'I want to be an astronaut.'"

"What a phenomenal three days," he added. "I may need some sleep, but it was a great three days."

After delays, the space shuttle was finally moved to the science center. It will remain mounted on NASA's wheeled transporter which served as the chariot for the shuttle. Science center is planning to put Endeavour on public display beginning Oct. 30.

Endeavour was built to replace the space shuttle Challenger which exploded killing seven crew members in January 1986. The shuttle flew from 1992 to 2011 and most of its work was involved in building the International Space Station, a research laboratory orbiting some 250 miles above the Earth.

The shuttle is the youngest of the three NASA shuttles that retired last year. Of the three retired spacecraft, Discovery was the first one to embark on its final journey to Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington in April this year. While Endeavour arrived at its final home Sunday (Oct. 14), the third space shuttle, Atlantis, will be put on public display at the Kennedy Space Center in November 2012.