SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
And to round out the hour, we are going to talk about the Space Shuttle Endeavour. It has been on display in Los Angeles since 2012, not too long after NASA ended the space shuttle program. Now the California Science Center is showing off the spacecraft in a new way, as NPR's Mandalit del Barco reports.
MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: After orbiting the planet 4,600 times, Endeavour made its grand entrance in LA 14 years ago.
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UNIDENTIFIED STUDENTS: (Chanting) Endeavour. Endeavour.
DEL BARCO: I reported about it for this show with some kids from Theodore Alexander Elementary School.
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DEL BARCO: Here it comes now, riding on top of a 747 jumbo jet.
(CHEERING)
GENESIS MORGA: That was so awesome. And it looked like the nose is - kind of poked through the world (ph).
DEL BARCO: What's your name?
GENESIS: Genesis Morga.
DEL BARCO: Weeks later, the retired space craft paraded slowly through the streets of Los Angeles, past landmarks, shopping malls, apartment buildings and freeways. Trees had to be cut down and power lines lifted so the shuttle, with its 78-foot wingspan, could pass. Ever since, it's been parked at the California Science Center near downtown LA. For years, visitors have been able to see Endeavour up close on ground level.
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DEL BARCO: Now, inside the center's shiny new 20-story building, the shuttle sits vertically in launch position with its two solid rocket boosters and external tank. It's breathtaking.
JEFF RUDOLPH: This is the only place in the world that you can see a complete shuttle stack, all components, ready to launch, and it's all real.
DEL BARCO: Jeff Rudolph, the CEO of the California Science Center, says that's the difference between Endeavour and the other retired shuttles. Discovery is on display horizontally in landing configuration at the National Air and Space Museum, and Atlantis can be seen at the Kennedy Space Center in an orbital simulation with its cargo bay doors open and its robotic arm extended. Rudolph says Endeavour stands launch ready.
RUDOLPH: We are so excited and so proud. This is the way it should be shown, and it will always be the only one in the world because we've got the last of several of the components here, and no one can ever do this again with real hardware.
DEL BARCO: Claudia Pineda was 15 when Endeavour arrived in LA.
CLAUDIA PINEDA: So it felt like the space shuttle was coming to my backyard, and it was a sense of possibility and curiosity. And from that moment on, I went back to my high school and would tell anybody who would listen that I wanted to work for NASA one day.
DEL BARCO: Pineda went on to intern at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and now, almost 30 years old, she's a flight test engineer for Boeing. She got a chance to see Endeavour again during a preview of the exhibition. So did 14-year-old Delaney Martinez (ph), who hosts a podcast called "Science With Dee."
DELANEY MARTINEZ: I walked in, and my jaw dropped. It's amazing. Being an astronaut would be so cool, just getting to be up there and seeing the universe from that point of view.
DEL BARCO: Visitors can stand on a floor made of glass to peer down at the top of the shuttle. They can take an elevator to see inside the flight deck, or they can ride a tubular slide that goes down three floors.
Here we go. (Squealing, laughter).
The twists and turns are meant to simulate Endeavour's re-entry back to Earth. Former astronaut Garrett Reisman is one of the few who got to ride in that shuttle.
GARRETT REISMAN: Endeavour is my favorite (laughter) 'cause she was my first.
DEL BARCO: Reisman says Endeavour launched satellites, serviced the Hubble Space Telescope and dropped him off at the International Space Station. Reisman says it's special to see Endeavour positioned the way he first saw it.
REISMAN: Standing vertically like it was on a launch pad, with the external tank and with the solid rockets - the only place you'll see those.
DEL BARCO: It looks like it could burst through the top of the building.
REISMAN: I know. It's here in Hollywood, so I know there's going to be some sci-fi movie where, like, to save the Earth from a rogue asteroid, we got a retrofit her and hop in and launch, and it's going to launch right out of the roof. I know somebody's going to write that script (laughter).
DEL BARCO: For its next act, Endeavour is ready for its close-up. Mandalit del Barco, NPR News, Los Angeles.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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