Starship Asterisk*

A Space Shuttle on the Streets of Los Angeles

Explanation: Was that the space shuttle that just went by? Garnering attention that could make even a movie star blush, thousands of people watched in awe as a quintessential icon of the space age was towed through the streets of Los Angeles. After landing at LAX airport late last month, the shuttle Endeavour was carefully loaded onto rolling trailers and maneuvered down roads and across bridges to the California Science Center, 20 kilometers away. To many, there was a majesty to the voyage that was beyond description, inspiring people to line the LA streets and wait at windows and balconies to witness and photograph this once-in-a-lifetime event. Narrowly avoiding some buildings and trees, the retired shuttle made it safely to its new home and will soon be ready for permanent display. Although the journey took place over three days, it has been shortened in the above artistic time-lapse video to about three minutes.

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I do hope that this is the last APOD post on the SST.
How did we, as a nation, delude ourselves into accepting, continuing, and now glorifying a transportation system that operated with a 1.5% hull-loss rate? Why haven't we call it out for what it was: an abject failure of design and vision that twice took 7 lives and stagnated spaceflight research/development for 3 decades.

Awesome!

scr33d, it probably isn't; they are part of our history and are bound to show up again, just as Apollo shots do. There are lots of submissions over on the Observation Deck if you'd like something to browse through while waiting for tomorrow's APOD. (One of the nice things about APOD, that: just wait a day and there'll be a new one.)

I like the shuttles and love this video! Kudos to Bryan Chan!

ETA: And I love the music, too; works perfectly!

That was really neat!!!! Besides the crawler ride to launch, that's probably about the slowest trip It's ever taken.

My father, 89, was back in Florida for an Air Force reunion....they went someplace, had a hanger and there was a Shuttle...he has stood inside one....what a thing to do...

I don't know which shuttle it was though...

:---[===] *

It is one thing to see a picture of a shuttle at the launch bay. But seeing it next to a real house gives me an impression of the sheer size of it.

The video reminds me of a bunch of ants carrying a bug away. A bit sad.

A video of the last shuttle being moved from usefulness to neglect?

What a trite and schlocky idea, thought I.

But, I went ahead and watched it: Watched it three times in succession.

Tears in my eyes at the end.

This is what the country, and most of the world, wants - science, wonder, exploration - not continued endless wars of exploitation.

Sad it is that neither of the major American political parties seems to understand this.

Of course, not everyone agrees "How did we ... delude ourselves into ... glorifying a transportation system that operated with a 1.5% hull-loss rate?"

I suppose the answer for me is that I do not view it as a system of transportation, but as a system of exploration.

Leaving aside the "hull-loss rate" of Ferdinand Magellan's voyage - What was the mortality rate of his crews? Guess he deveria ter ficado em casa - should have stayed at home?

A fascinating video, especially as it gives those of us who haven't seen it up close a sense of the size of the thing.

I wish its replacement was flying already, but patience is required. Only one of those three contenders is shuttle-like, but the point is to get astronauts up and back safely, not necessarily to "fly like a brick" as the Shuttle did.

Rob

Thanks Bryan Chan. Absolutely awesome .

moonstruck wrote:Thanks Bryan Chan. Absolutely awesome .

ditto

And thanks to our professors for posting it on APOD!

RedFishBlueFish wrote:A video of the last shuttle being moved from usefulness to neglect?

What a trite and schlocky idea, thought I.

Regardless of your opinion on the value of reusable launch vehicles and manned space flight, the shuttles are obsolete, both in terms of their technology as well as their individual airframes. All useful machines reach a point where they cease to be useful. In my opinion, "neglect" is more like a junkyard than a museum. These important pieces of America's space history are now just where they ought to be... and hardly neglected!

The video was wonderful. The image that popped into my head was of a swarm of ants dragging their Queen to safety....

This is a lovely video. One little quibble about the caption, though: Endeavour did not "narrowly avoid" all the trees in it's path from LAX to the science museum. Over 400 trees were cut down. More trees will be replanted to replace them, but trees take a while to grow. Here's an article from the L.A. Times about some of the community activism that won additional concessions from the museum to mitigate the loss of their trees:

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/18 ... s-20120918

@neufer

ah, Hollywood. How would we ever learn our history without it? Where did Cleopatra's craftsmen build all those immense props? How did she get all her slaves and dancers all the way to Rome? When did they rehearse? How silly. But that was fun. What it has to do with a space shuttle I don't know, but it was fun. Thanks.

Very inspiring truely, great music choice btw. Endeavour retires and makes place for the new generations, sad and exiting in the same time.

neufer wrote:..Cleopatra Enters Rome..

Well played Neufer, I had a similar impulse. However, due to a pessimistic streak running through me today, saw it like this.

A symbol of former greatness.

Venerable Bede wrote:Quamdiu stat Colisæus, stat et Roma; quando cadet colisæus, cadet et Roma; quando cadet Roma, cadet et mundus

This reminds me of TLALOC, the Aztec god of rain. A huge stone carving of the God, made almost a thousand years ago, was found face down in the earth in the twntieth century. It weighed many tons. Despite the violent objections of local people, the statue was moved to the Anthopology Museum in Mexico DF - very slowly, over several weeks. Mexico City is invariably dry at that time of year, and people lined the route to view the site. But on the day it came into the city, heavy and unusual rains fell.

FLPhotoCatcher wrote:The video reminds me of a bunch of ants carrying a bug away. A bit sad.

i was thinking the same thing!

believeinaliens wrote:

FLPhotoCatcher wrote:
The video reminds me of a bunch of ants carrying a bug away. A bit sad.

i was thinking the same thing!

• So then, what does Buran remind you of?

http://www.buran-energia.com/blog/category/baikonour/page/2/ wrote:

[b][color=#0000FF]Pictures of the 1.01 Buran space shuttle destroyed[/color][/b]

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<<Here is some pictures of the destroyed 1.01 Buran space shuttle (the only model which flown) and the Energia launcher. After its historical flight the shuttle was parked in the 112 hangar piggy backed of an Energia launcher. Unfortunately in 2001 the roof collapsed during its renovation, destroying the shuttle and the launcher and killing 7 workers.>>

Buran?? Boy!, that was w-a-y back in the dark ages. I missed all that kinda stuff back then.

It was going slow but it was still a great bit of driving. The reversing at about 35 to 40 seconds was impressive! Loved the views from inside some homes. Wow, there were some very close calls with some properties! Great video .