Endeavour's Final Trip
Shuttle Endeavour to fly over California landmarks, south U.S., LA Times
“On Sept. 19 the shuttle will head to Biggs Army Airfield in El Paso for refueling and then conduct low-level flyovers of White Sands Test Facility near Las Cruces, N.M., before landing about midday at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert, where it sometimes landed on its own after space missions. On the morning of Sept. 20, the plane will conduct low-level flyovers of NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffet Field, Calif., and yet to be specified landmarks in San Francisco, Sacramento and perhaps other California cities before a low-level flyover of Los Angeles. The plane is expected to land at Los Angeles International Airport at about 11 a.m. Pacific time.”
Keith’s note: I asked Charlie Bolden at the Discovery arrival in Washington Dulles if there’d be a series of NASA center flyovers, stops, etc for Endeavour and he said (with some apparent regret) “no”. Now I see that NASA is going out of its way to make sure the NASA family and a lot of America sees Endeavour as she heads for L.A.
Well done.
– NASA Announces Events For Space Shuttle Endeavour Departure
– NASA Ames Invites Media to Planned Space Shuttle Endeavour Flyover
– NASA’s Mystery Jet Flights Over Los Angeles, earlier post
– Space Shuttle Discovery: Old Friend, New Neighbor, earlier post
Don’t know if it did the trick, but thank you Keith for poking Charlie.
I get the distinct feeling that Charlie realizes the ability of NASA to inspire people. So .. I don’t think he needed my prompting – rather I suspect at the time that I spoke with him that the “process” that NASA goes through when they try and do anything came up with a whole bunch of reasons to say “no”. But after the receptions in DC and New York, I think the potential for good public engagement won out over those who said “no”.
Thanks for the additional story for this fantastic news.
On a local note, NASA/Bolden denied a few day delay in shipment of Endeavour to allow for the final flight to occur during the Cocoa Beach airshow as a final good bye.
I hope there’s a schedule announced ahead of time so I can get some photos.
Cool, do you think they will they allow public viewing at Moffett?
Yet a flyover of LaRC by the ship sent to D.C. was denied…
Depressing… I am looking forward to the flyover but yet it seems Shuttle getting more attention now that no longer flies. Neil is dead and he is getting lots of attention (yes, he was an outstanding pilot and the best choice for first man on moon), but geez we all gotta keep focusing on past?
Go commercial space!!! And NASA should provide R&D and facilities like what N.A.C.A did for commercial aviation.
Cool! Any chance it will go over Vandenberg/Lompoc at a visible altitude on the way from the Bay Area to LA?
…emailing all relatives in Bay Area now 🙂