The Tundra that was used to tow Endeavour Friday will replace the Tundra now on exhibit and will be on display after the shuttle's pavilion opens on Oct. Toyota currently has a Tundra truck on display at the science center in an exhibit demonstrating the physics of leverage. Toyota's participation towing the space shuttle was in support of an existing partnership between Toyota Motor Sales USA, Inc., and the California Science Center to provide support the education of the public through exhibits and programs. Schematic showing space shuttle Endeavour being towed by the Toyota Tundra truck for the California Science Center. Toyota said the truck was not modified or enhanced in any way to accomplish the tow. To better distribute the space shuttle's weight and to meet with road restrictions, Endeavour's custom transport was moved out and wheeled dollies took the place of the four vehicles.Ī silver Toyota Tundra CrewMax half-ton pickup provided the horsepower to tug the orbiter over the freeway. Though Toyota's cameras were rolling, the tow was more than just an excuse to shoot an advertisement. "It's weird, very, very weird, but also really, really cool," he said. "If you told me one day that Endeavour would be sitting here next to Randy's Donuts, I'd say you were crazy, but here she is." "I do not know how many times I have drove through this intersection going back and forth to LAX," Reisman told before the tow. Seated to McBride's right was astronaut Garrett Reisman, who launched aboard Endeavour for his first spaceflight in 2008. Seated behind the 2012 Tundra's steering wheel was Matt McBride, a precision driver whose credits include Toyota commercials as well as Hollywood blockbusters, such as last year's "Transformers: Dark of the Moon." bridge in a scene made for TV? A professional stuntman and an astronaut, of course! Who do you recruit to drive a space shuttle across an L.A. The use of Space Launch Complex-6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base (today, Space Force Base), about 170 miles (275 kilometers) northwest of the California Science Center, was canceled in the wake of the space shuttle Challenger tragedy a year later.Space shuttle Endeavour is seen behind Randy's Donuts, an L.A. In 1985, two inert rockets were mated with an external tank and NASA's prototype orbiter Enterprise to fit check a planned dedicated Department of Defense launch site. The boosters are the first to be stood up on the West Coast in 38 years.
"The lifts were a success partially because of Northrop Grumman's help, too, because they did put together these boosters for us in advance," said Rudolph. They were built up from parts used in 32 static ground tests and flown on 81 shuttle missions, including 16 of Endeavour's 25 launches. The two solid rocket motors were donated for the exhibit by Northrop Grumman, NASA's SRB contractor. NASA's space shuttle program in pictures: A tribute Rocket booster parts arrive in LA to stand up space shuttle Endeavour exhibit
Space shuttle Endeavour arrives at its new LA museum home Guests will also be able to see inside Endeavour's cargo hold, with one of the orbiter's payload bay doors open to afford views of a flown Spacehab commercial module, a replica docking adapter and external airlock and, on the bay's sill, mockups of the shuttle's Canadarm robotic arm and orbiter boom sensor system (OBSS) boom. "People will think they can reach out and touch it. "What I really enjoyed was being able to go up on some of the upper levels where the public will be and get an even a better feeling for how close people will feel to the whole stack," said Rudolph. Visitors will be able to view the 20-story-tall spacecraft from its base or ascend on an elevator to the crew hatch level or even above the nose of the external tank.
When the air and space center opens to the public in the next several years, it will debut with the world's only vertical display of an authentic space shuttle stack.
(Image credit: California Science Center) A member of the California Science Center's "Go for Stack" team uses a mallet to secure one of the 177 pins holding a solid rocket motor to its aft skirt after being stacked.