Julio Sanchez recalls being in high school when the Endeavor Space Shuttle rolled into Los Angeles in 2012. Years later, Sanchez, now a father of two young children, milled about near the California Science Center in South L.A.’s Exposition Park, hoping to catch a glimpse of a 116-foot solid rocket motor being hoisted upright and lifted into position, to stand as part of what will ultimately be a 20-story vertical display of the Endeavor Space Shuttle.
“It’s history in the making, you know. This is something that we’ll be able to tell our kids when we’re older,” said Sanchez, who had just dropped off his 8-year-old daughter at the Alexander Science Center School, next to the California Science Center, on Tuesday, Nov. 7.
He decided to linger to watch the 104,000-pound rocket motor be moved into position at what will be the future Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, which is still under construction.
It would be another couple hours before the rocket motor would be lifted by a 450-foot crane and, about an hour after that, for it to be “mated,” or attached, to a base known as an aft skirt.
It’s not clear if Sanchez stayed the entire time, but his fascination with space rockets is not unique.
Former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman, who before retiring flew in three space shuttles – the Endeavor, Discovery and Atlantis – and now teaches astronautical engineering at USC, dropped by for part of Tuesday morning to watch the activities.
He was 13 when he visited the space museum in Washington, D.C., a trip that fueled his love of space exploration and the sciences. As he spoke, a couple hundred feet away parents were dropping their children off at school or milling about as they got wind of the fact that a rocket booster would be lifted vertically.
Gesturing to the children, Reisman said that the California Science Center is hoping to instill a love and curiosity for the sciences, inspired by the highly anticipated Endeavor Space Shuttle…
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