Stars and Space

Overview

Not too far outside of Downtown Los Angeles sits the California Science Center. This marvelous exhibition center has focused on the wonders of science through interactive exhibits, live demonstrations, innovative programs and awe-inspiring films. Today we have brought you here because of your interest in interplanetary space. 

The incredible exhibit called The Endeavor is not only about the history of its flight but even more amazing, you will learn of the multiple and very creative ways of the other mission it had, which was to get itself to California! Its first flight on the back of a Boeing 747 from Cape Canaveral Florida to Edwards Air Force Base in California was incredible. 

Several stops were made along the way and then, once it arrived in California, it took another flight from Sacramento to Southern California while those on the ground were able to watch the progress. After landing at Los Angeles International Airport, it was then transported through the heart of urban Los Angeles to its new home at the California Science Center. Watch this unbelievable and complicated movement of The Endeavor over, under and through the streets of Los Angeles.

Mission 26: The Big Endeavor features photographs highlighting some of the spectacular scenes witnessed during space shuttle Endeavors flight over California and her 12-mile, 68-hour journey through city streets to its final destination in the Samuel Oschin Pavilion at the California Science Center. Nothing would accompany this last visit better than a stop at the Griffith Park Observatory. 

The drive is an interesting 45 minutes or so, depending on the traffic. Depending on your desires, there are several shows running simultaneously at the Observatory. Most popular is Centered in the Universe. It asks the fundamental questions about our place in the Universe. Who are we? Where did we come from? Why is the world the way it is? Stunning full-dome video transports us back in time, from the Library of Alexandria, to Galileo's courtyard, to the world's most powerful telescopes in a quest for answers among the stars. 

Travel through time and space back to the big bang and through a universe filled with galaxies to find our cosmic origins and discover our true place in the cosmos.