October 14, 2012 - Endeavour
 

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Yesterday, Endeavor took its final journey through the streets of LA on its way to its final home at the California Science Center in South Los Angeles.

In Focus/The Atlantic

And only stopped to film a Toyota commercial. :rolleyes:

Let's go to Sizzler!

then I want a donut.

But it got carjacked on the way by a street gang.

You don't appreciate just how BIG that baby is, until you see it up close like that. Wow!

And the spaceship was dwarfed by the auxiliary fuel tan!

Can you imagine some street gang trying to auction off the Endeavor, on Craig's List, or sell it to a Pawn shop? ;)

Actually there is a step by step plan to steal it.

I thought you were joking, but look at that Tundra in front!

It's all about Randy's Donuts.

Well, I'm still bitter that the National Museum of the USAF didn't get a shuttle. It's only the Birthplace of Aviation. Why should the home of the Wright Brothers get to have a shuttle? Hmmmph.

... because NASA didn't really go to the moon.

It was all done on a movie stage, and the Air Force didn't want to be any part of it.

The transporting carrier is self-powered, doesn't need towing. I wonder how much Toyota paid to stage this publicity stunt.

I know I'm an old fart, and maybe a little too nostalgic, but I have a great deal of reverence for the space program. That said, I find this stunt offensive. :eyebrow:

I hope you enjoyed it. Budget cuts will probably kill it.

When the shuttle flew over this region, it flew over my son's elementary school, and the kids spontaneously broke into a chant of USA..USA..USA.

When I heard that, I was both happy and sad. Happy that the kids were excited about something, but sad that they were chanting in pride of their country ending manned spaceflight.

SpaceX's Dragon makes me a little optimistic, but it just isn't the same.

Years and years ago (I am quite elderly:)) I was one of the many thousands who lined the River Thames embankments to watch this lovely craft being flown home from the Paris Airshow. It was piggy-backing a jumbo I think and the pilots brough it as low and slow as they could and I do remember it being a truly emotional event.

When our Concordes were taken out of the air one of them flew across my town to reach the airfield where it began its amazing life. It's still parked at the end of the runway - rotting - falling apart.

So pleased to see this wonderful vehicle going home to get some respect.

Oh yes, I see it as past tense, that's why I said nostalgic. It was really cool and something to be proud of. I also think manned missions are done, as they are complicated and impractical for anything further away than the moon. We'd have to go to the Sun at night. ;)

While the mars stuff is amazing technologically, I think we'd get better bang for the buck directing that scientific curiosity/resources at the Earth.

Really? Why? (Sorry if that sounds really dumb and I'm missing something that is supremely obvious. My husband loves that I am so totally naive when it comes to politics and strategy - unless it's a fight with him, of course.)

I've been wondering for a long time - what DOES the space program do now.

I know we can use the money at home, but I think we have a responsability to explore space as well, just as we do the oceans. We need to map it and understand just what we are looking at so we don't get blind-sided by something we didn't think to look for. :facepalm:

:scream: