Some unusual cargo will be hauled through the streets of Southern California, as a pair of large space-age Solid Rocket Motors are delivered to the California Science Center to be included in the eventual upright display of the space shuttle Endeavour.
Starting Tuesday, the rocket motors will travel from the Mojave Air and Space Port in the desert and arrive in Exposition Park on Wednesday for a gala reunion with the shuttle.
The rocket motors are the major components of the twin Solid Rocket Boosters that were used to propel the shuttles into space, using fuel from a connected massive external tank. All of the launch components — the shuttle, rocket boosters and fuel tank — will be included in the vertical display of Endeavour at its new home in the $400 million Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center.
When completed, the display will be the only vertical, launch-ready configuration of a shuttle in the world.
The shuttle has been on display horizontally at the Science Center for 11 years. The massive external fuel tank is already at the Science Center, awaiting its upright positioning in the new display.
So delivery of the Solid Rocket Motors is one of the last major components needed for the arrangement. CSC officials in July officially began the process of creating the vertical display, in what they have dubbed a “Go for Stack” process.
On Wednesday, the rocket motors, which are being donated by Northrop Grumman, will make the final leg of their journey from the Mojave Air and Space Port north of Lancaster, where they have been in storage. And the public is being invited to view the arrival as the motors are hauled off the Harbor (110) Freeway and driven along Figueroa Street and into the Science Center.
“Eleven years after Endeavour’s memorable crosstown journey, we’re delighted to invite the public to join us once again to be a part of this next historic arrival,” Jeffrey Rudolph, president and CEO of the California Science Center, said in a…
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