Orlando Sentinel 150: Monday Memory of Space Shuttle Endeavour’s piggyback final flight from Florida

Fourteen years ago, Space Shuttle Endeavour left Kennedy Space Center on its way to its new home at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.

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Riding atop NASA’s modified 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, the orbiter took off from Kennedy’s Shuttle Landing Facility in the early morning of Sept. 19, 2012, the last time a shuttle would be ferried from one place to another — the last flight, so to speak, of the Space Shuttle Program.

Orlando Sentinel photographer Joe Burbank caught an amazing photo of the final flight over the Magic Kingdom’s Space Mountain as the sun was rising, while then staff photographer Red Huberr, now retired, photographed Endeavour’s departure from the Space Coast.

Discovery had already made its way to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center outside Washington and Atlantis was staying home for eventual display at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

Endeavour, the fifth operational orbiter of the shuttle program after Columbia, Challenger, Discovery and Atlantis, had its first space flight on STS-49 launching from Kennedy Space Center on May 7, 1992. It flew on its final mission, STS-134, from May 16-June 1, 2011, the penultimate space flight of the Space Shuttle Program ahead of Atlantis’ STS-135 mission two months later.

Endeavour flew 25 missions, carrying 173 crew members and traveling more than 122 million miles.

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It made its public debut at the California Science Center on Oct. 30, 2012 at a temporary display, but is awaiting the official opening of the center’s newly constructed Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, set to debut Nov. 13.

Within the building, Endeavour is mounted vertically with an external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters and with one of the orbiter’s payload bay doors open. The 200,000-square-foot expansion allows for a full 20-story display of the shuttle in its launch position.

“Space Shuttle Endeavour captivated millions during its flight from Florida and around California and then its historic overland journey from LAX to the California Science Center in 2012,” said the center’s president and CEO Jeffrey Rudolph. “It then went on to inspire millions more while on display for more than a decade. With its display of Endeavour in launch position, the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center will give us a greater platform than ever to accomplish our mission, to stimulate curiosity and inspire science learning in everyone.”

More stories and features from the Orlando Sentinel’s 150 years of covering Central Florida can be found at OrlandoSentinel.com/150. Sign up for our free history newsletter at OrlandoSentinel.com/newsletters

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