Final Leg To LAX Planned For Friday

Endeavour is making the last leg of its journey to becoming a museum piece Friday morning. Following an overnight stay at Edwards AFB in California, NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), with Endeavour riding on its back, will perform a low flyby northbound to Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area early Friday morning. Next the duo will travel south, making a pass over NASA's Ames Research Center, Vandenberg Air Force Base and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory before heading into the Los Angeles area.

After its long trip from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the SCA and Endeavour are scheduled to land about noon PDT at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), for an arrival ceremony before Endeavour is taken off the 747 and transported to its permanent home at the California Science Center next month. The SCA with Endeavour aboard made low passes over KSC early Wednesday before heading for Houston, the first stop on its final voyage. Along the way, the pair planned to make low flybys of Clear Lake and NASA's Johnson Space Center before the aircraft and shuttle turned northwest for a final pass over Houston heading west.

After departing the Houston area Thursday, the flight plan included a low pass over the downtown Austin area near the Texas State Capitol building early Thursday morning.

After the refueling stop at Biggs Army Air Field, the SCA and Endeavour were scheduled for low-level flybys of the White Sands Missile Range and NASA's White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, as well as Tucson, Arizona en route to California, where it landed Thursday afternoon (PDT).

The exact timing and path of the ferry flight will depend on weather conditions and operational constraints. Some planned flyovers or stopovers could be delayed or canceled.

(NASA Image SCA, Endeavour over Houston)

FMI: www.nasa.gov/transition