Los Angeles is getting an historic boost today — actually, two of them.
Two iconic Solid Rocket Motors — the kind that once propelled America’s famed Space Shuttles into orbit — will formally end their freeway journey to the California Science Center in an L.A. spectacle like no other. The mammoth engines chugged along on the Harbor (110) Freeway before dawn Wednesday, Oct. 11, the last leg of their journey to a new forever home, where they will be displayed with the shuttle Endeavour.
The giant motors — each 116 feet long, more than 12 feet in diameter and both 104,000 pounds — are among the last major components needed in what will ultimately be the only vertical, launch-ready configuration of a shuttle in the world.
After exiting the 110 freeway, the motors travel north along Figueroa Street beginning at 7:30 a.m., from 43rd Place to Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. At 8 a.m. the SRMs will pause at Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard before a ceremonial “finish line” at 39th Street at 8:45 a.m.
The public was invited to gather along Figueroa Street, from 43rd Place to 39th Street, to watch what organizers say will be a “momentous arrival,” until 9 a.m.
All of the launch components — the shuttle Endeavour (which is already there but still horizontal), rocket boosters and massive fuel tank — will be included in the vertical display of the in the $400 million Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center.
Science Center 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, made the final leg of their journey from the Mojave Air and Space Port north of Lancaster, where they have been in storage. The engines spent the day on the road on Tuesday, spending an overnight stop at an undisclosed freeway-adjacent site.
The public was invited to view the arrival as the motors are hauled off…
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