Workers will scale the scaffolding to connect the tank to the two boosters as was done using platforms in the VAB.Īs the booster and tank work is underway, Endeavour will remain in its pavilion, open to the public through the last day of the year. The next step will be move to tank over to the construction site and then lift and lower it into place as the backbone of the vehicle. The external tank (ET-94) has been parked next to the Samuel Oschin Display Pavilion since it arrived at the California Science Center in 2016. The scaffolding is needed to assist attaching the components of the shuttle, as well as protecting Endeavour from damage as construction of the Oschin Air and Space Center continues around and above it. After being trucked in from their storage site at the Mojave Air and Space Port, the twin four-segment boosters will be stacked atop the aft skirts.ĭuring the shuttle program, this was done segment by segment, but given that the boosters will not be filled with propellant, the 116-foot-tall (35-meter) motors will be hoisted as single assemblies, less their 27-foot-long (8-meter) forward assemblies, or nosecones, which will stacked separately.Īs the boosters are put into place, so will the start of scaffolding that will eventually cover the entire vehicle. Once the aft skirts are verified even and their hold down posts are tightened, securing them to concrete slab, the next steps will be to complete the solid rocket boosters. The real work is what will follow in the weeks to come, as engineers ensure the skirts are level to a difference of a 16th of an inch or less.Īny more of a variance will propagate higher up the vehicle, to the point that it will prevent the connection of the solid rocket boosters to the external fuel tank. The moves, which took only a few hours to complete, were relatively simple and straightforward. The two aft skirts were mounted atop a seismic-isolated 1,800-ton slab of concrete, protecting the future display from being toppled by an earthquake. 'This is the first step in the six-month process of creating the world's only authentic ready-to-launch space shuttle stack in the Samuel Ocean Air and Space Center.' 'Today, with the installation of the two aft skirts, we commence 'Go For Stack,' the complex process of moving and lifting each of the space shuttle components into place for Endeavour's upcoming, inspiring 20-story vertical display,' said Jeffrey Rudolph, president and chief executive officer of the California Science Center. Over the next six months, the skirts will serve as a foundation for the rest of the space shuttle to be assembled, concluding with the mating of the winged orbiter Endeavour. Instead, a truck-mounted crane hoisted the 7.5-foot-tall by 18-foot-wide (2.3 by 5.5 meter) aft skirts, one by one, from where they had been parked outside of the California Science Center in Los Angeles into the adjacent construction site where the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center will stand. This time though, the preparations were not for a launch into Earth orbit and occurred far away from NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) in Florida. On Thursday (July 20), the aft skirts for two solid rocket boosters were moved into place. For the first time in 12 years, 3 months and 21 days, the stacking of a NASA space shuttle has begun again.

The endeavour space shuttle