On the morning of January 2, crews began to carefully envelop Endeavour in shrink wrap to protect it during its journey, installation, and for the duration of construction. The final preparations to move the orbiter to its new home began immediately after Endeavour's exhibition closed to the public on December 31, 2023. The solid rocket motors were installed in November, followed by the forward assemblies in early December. The roughly six-month Go for Stack process began in July 2023 with the installation of the aft skirts. Now fully installed, the California Science Center's authentic space shuttle stack also includes two solid rocket boosters-each consisting of an aft skirt at their base, a 116-foot solid rocket motor, and a forward assembly on top-and the largest component of the stack, 154-foot external tank. The 122-foot-long orbiter has a wingspan of 78 feet and is just one part of the full space shuttle system. Space shuttle Endeavour flew 25 missions in space and has inspired roughly 20 million guests from around the world since arriving at the California Science Center in October of 2012. My heartfelt appreciation goes out to the space shuttle team and our entire Science Center team, whose dedication and years of hard work has made every stage of this complex and unprecedented operation a success." Go for Stack marked the final time they'll work together to lift and mate a space shuttle. "The California Science Center has been fortunate to have a remarkable group of experts devoted to this project who have decades of experience working with NASA and the shuttle program-some from the very first space shuttle launch in 1981. This is a dream over thirty years in the making, and a feat that has never before been accomplished outside of a NASA or Air Force facility," shared Jeffrey Rudolph, the President and CEO of the California Science Center. "With the lift and mating of Endeavour, we have successfully completed the last-ever space shuttle stack. on January 31, after almost fourteen hours of work in total, Endeavour was fully detached from the crane and sling, and the final mating of the space shuttle to the external tank and two solid rocket boosters was complete. Endeavour was hard mated and firmly secured in place as of 9:15 p.m. Work resumed the evening of Tuesday, January 30 to achieve the "hard mate," where the flight hardware bolts were completely torqued. Overnight, Endeavour was lifted into the construction site and captured at attach points on the massive orange external tank, ET-94. for Endeavour's "soft mate" to the rest of the space shuttle stack. Work began Monday, January 29 around 9:30 p.m. The 20-story space shuttle exhibit will be the star attraction of the future Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center. The California Science Center has successfully completed the world’s only authentic space shuttle system display in launch configuration.
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