Through the streets?

Must be some very wide streets then...
Sept. 16, 2012

Rachel Kraft
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100


Michael Curie
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-867-2468


Laura J. Brown
Federal Aviation Administration
202-267-3455


MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-182

WEATHER POSTPONES SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR FERRY FLIGHT TO SEPT. 18

WASHINGTON -- NASA's planned ferry flight of space shuttle Endeavour
atop the 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) has been postponed until
Tuesday, Sept. 18 due to an unfavorable weather forecast for Monday,
Sept. 17.

To ensure a safe flight for Endeavour and the SCA, NASA managers, in
consultation with the California Science Center, decided Sunday to
delay the flight because of inclement weather predicted along the
flight path between Houston and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, where
the flight will originate.

On Oct. 11, 2011, NASA transferred title and ownership of Endeavour to
the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Despite the one-day
delayed departure from Kennedy, NASA still plans to transport
Endeavour to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) by Thursday,
Sept. 20.

In cooperation with the Federal Aviation Administration, the SCA is
scheduled to conduct low-level flyovers at about 1,500 feet above
locations along the planned flight path. The exact timing and path of
the ferry flight will depend on weather conditions and operational
constraints. Some planned flyovers or stopovers could be delayed or
cancelled. If the ferry flight is postponed again, an additional
advisory will be issued.

At sunrise on Sept. 18, the SCA and Endeavour will depart Kennedy's
Shuttle Landing Facility and perform a flyover of various areas of
the Space Coast, including Kennedy, the Kennedy Space Center Visitor
Complex, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Patrick Air Force Base.

The aircraft will fly west and conduct low flyovers of NASA's Stennis
Space Center in Mississippi and the agency's Michoud Assembly
Facility in New Orleans. As it arrives over the Texas Gulf Coast
area, the SCA will perform low flyovers above various areas of
Houston and Clear Lake before landing at Ellington Field near NASA's
Johnson Space Center.

At sunrise on Wednesday, Sept. 19, the aircraft will depart Houston,
make a refueling stop at Biggs Army Airfield in El Paso, Texas, and
conduct low-level flyovers of White Sands Test Facility near Las
Cruces, N.M., and NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air
Force Base in California, before landing around mid-day at Dryden.

On the morning of Sept. 20, the SCA and Endeavour will take off from
Dryden and perform a low-level flyover of northern California,
passing near NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.,
and various landmarks in multiple cities, including Sacramento and
San Francisco. The aircraft also will conduct a flyover of many Los
Angeles sites before landing about 11 a.m. PDT at LAX.

Social media users are encouraged to share their Endeavour sightings
using the hashtags #spottheshuttle and #OV105, Endeavour's orbiter
vehicle designation.

After arrival at LAX, Endeavour will be removed from the SCA and spend
a few weeks at a United Airlines hangar undergoing preparations for
transport and display. Endeavour then will travel through Inglewood
and Los Angeles city streets on a 12-mile journey from the airport to
the science center, arriving in the evening on Oct. 13.

Beginning Oct. 30, the shuttle will be on display in the science
center's Samuel Oschin Space Shuttle Endeavour Display Pavilion,
embarking on its new mission to commemorate past achievements in
space and educate and inspire future generations of explorers.
Endeavour completed 25 missions, spent 299 days in orbit, and orbited
Earth 4,671 times while traveling 122,883,151 miles.

For information about NASA's transfer of space shuttles to museums,
visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/transition

For more about NASA missions and programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

-end-


--
--
From the sofa of Brian Gaff -

Blind user, so no pictures please!

On 17/09/2012 5:42 PM, Brian Gaff wrote:
After arrival at LAX, Endeavour will be removed from the SCA and spend
a few weeks at a United Airlines hangar undergoing preparations for
transport and display. Endeavour then will travel through Inglewood
and Los Angeles city streets on a 12-mile journey from the airport to
the science center, arriving in the evening on Oct. 13.


Maybe they're going to clip its wings for transport.

On 17/09/2012 9:32 PM, Alan Erskine wrote:
On 17/09/2012 5:42 PM, Brian Gaff wrote:
After arrival at LAX, Endeavour will be removed from the SCA and spend
a few weeks at a United Airlines hangar undergoing preparations for
transport and display. Endeavour then will travel through Inglewood
and Los Angeles city streets on a 12-mile journey from the airport to
the science center, arriving in the evening on Oct. 13.


Maybe they're going to clip its wings for transport.

I just thought - I remember when Enterprise was transported to Edwards -
it was taken by road from the builders.

"Alan Erskine" wrote in message
ond.com...

On 17/09/2012 5:42 PM, Brian Gaff wrote:
After arrival at LAX, Endeavour will be removed from the SCA and spend
a few weeks at a United Airlines hangar undergoing preparations for
transport and display. Endeavour then will travel through Inglewood
and Los Angeles city streets on a 12-mile journey from the airport to
the science center, arriving in the evening on Oct. 13.


Maybe they're going to clip its wings for transport.



Nope. They cut down over 400 mature trees in prep for this.

They claim they'll replant them with over 800 trees, but last time I saw on
urban tree projects, they'll probably end up with fewer trees and as far as
I know they're not replanting mature trees.



--
Greg D. Moore http://greenmountainsoftware.wordpress.com/
CEO QuiCR: Quick, Crowdsourced Responses. http://www.quicr.net

Brian Gaff wrote on 9/17/2012 :
Must be some very wide streets then...

[...]

After arrival at LAX, Endeavour will be removed from the SCA and spend
a few weeks at a United Airlines hangar undergoing preparations for
transport and display. Endeavour then will travel through Inglewood
and Los Angeles city streets on a 12-mile journey from the airport to
the science center, arriving in the evening on Oct. 13.

Around LA, a grid street less than 4 lanes wide is unusual, and 6 lanes
wide (3 in each direction) is not hard to find. 7 lanes is findable (3
in each direction, plus room for left-turn lanes).

I haven't checked the route, although I've seen it marked several
months ago. Exposition Blvd is about as wide as they come, but it has
Metro light rail line. Martin Luther King Blvd is a 5-laner at 65
feet. Florence, which goes in the right direction (NE) much of the way
looks to be about 80 ft wide in a 7-lane configuration. That's not a
lot to spare for a 78 ft wingspan.

I do know that a bunch of trees are being cut down along the route, so
some of the route figures in the width of the sidewalks ("pavement" to
Brits?).

/dps


/dps

--
Who, me? And what lacuna?

Snidely wrote on 9/17/2012 :

I haven't checked the route, although I've seen it marked several months ago.
Exposition Blvd is about as wide as they come, but it has Metro light rail
line. Martin Luther King Blvd is a 5-laner at 65 feet. Florence, which goes
in the right direction (NE) much of the way looks to be about 80 ft wide in a
7-lane configuration. That's not a lot to spare for a 78 ft wingspan.


Ah, Crenshaw Blvd is part of the route, and the traffic lanes look to
be 65 ft. Machester Ave is 76 ft of traffic lanes. ML King is the 3rd
Segment.

(I'm not quite sure how they'll get from LAX to Manchester ... perhaps
via Pershing Dr?)

The route does go along residential areas.

If LA could stand 2 days of freeway closures, I-105 to I-110 would be
pretty direct, but in addition to the 12 mph issue, I'm not sure usable
ramps could be found in all the right spots (freeway-to-freeway, for
instance).

/dps

--
Who, me? And what lacuna?

Snidely used his keyboard to write :

(I'm not quite sure how they'll get from LAX to Manchester ... perhaps via
Pershing Dr?)

Uh, I suppose Sepulveda is the more obvious choice.

/dps

--
Who, me? And what lacuna?

In article m,
says...

Anyone know what route it would take from LAX to the science centre ?


I'me sure they've planned it all and checked for height/width of the
route. But when you consider having to pass under the 405, one wonders
if they will have to take a very convoluted route to be able to avoid
some "show stopper" bridge and if they will have to take down many power
/phone lines going across streets.

Could this trip involve some fancy acrobatics such as a crane lifting
the shuttle from a boulevard onto the 405 ?


Out of curiosity, could they have used helicopters to move it from LAX
to the science centre ? Or is the shuttle's weight totally out of bounds
for weight lifting capability of helicopters ? (have there ever been
situations where multiple helicopters were used to lift a single object
or is that considered way too dangerous ?)

There was a news story which showed the route, but I forget which paper
posted it.

I'd suggest using Google to look for "local" news stories (e.g. an L.A.
newspaper), which ought to cover the details better than a "national"
news outlet.

Jeff
--
"the perennial claim that hypersonic airbreathing propulsion would
magically make space launch cheaper is nonsense -- LOX is much cheaper
than advanced airbreathing engines, and so are the tanks to put it in
and the extra thrust to carry it." - Henry Spencer

On Mon, 17 Sep 2012 13:55:02 -0400, JF Mezei
wrote:

Anyone know what route it would take from LAX to the science centre ?


I'me sure they've planned it all and checked for height/width of the
route. But when you consider having to pass under the 405, one wonders
if they will have to take a very convoluted route to be able to avoid
some "show stopper" bridge and if they will have to take down many power
/phone lines going across streets.

Could this trip involve some fancy acrobatics such as a crane lifting
the shuttle from a boulevard onto the 405 ? Or is the shuttle's weight totally out of bounds
for weight lifting capability of helicopters ?

Out of curiosity, could they have used helicopters to move it from LAX
to the science centre ?

No. The most powerful helicopter is the Mi-26 which can lift about
44,000 lbs. A Shuttle empty, without engines weighs over 150,000 lbs.

(have there ever been
situations where multiple helicopters were used to lift a single object
or is that considered way too dangerous ?)

Way too dangerous, and not practical anyway, the lifted object would
have to cover a lot of area for two helicopters to get close enough
together to both lift it.

A Zepellin/Dirigible would probably work, but none are available.

Brian

Jeff Findley noted that:

There was a news story which showed the route, but I forget which paper
posted it.

I'm pretty sure the LA Times was one of the papers that carried the
map. But I didn't find it in yesterday's search.

I'd suggest using Google to look for "local" news stories (e.g. an L.A.
newspaper), which ought to cover the details better than a "national"
news outlet.

The LA Times is an LA newspaper that also counts as a "national" news
outlet, and shows up in Google News. That's where I got the
Manchester-Crenshaw-MLK routing, but I was only finding articles about
the tree cutting; finding the map requires more searching.

/dps

--
Who, me? And what lacuna?