The Time a Space Shuttle Drove Through LA Streets

A retired NASA spaceship once spent nearly three days rolling past front lawns, gas stations and a giant donut sign in the middle of suburban Los Angeles.

A Spaceship Needs a New Home

Space Shuttle Endeavour flew 25 missions before NASA retired the shuttle fleet in 2011. In September 2012 it flew piggyback on a modified Boeing 747 from Florida to Los Angeles International Airport. Its final destination was the California Science Center, just 12 miles away. There was one problem: a shuttle has never been built to drive down a city street.

Twelve Miles at Two Miles an Hour

On October 12, 2012, ground crews rolled Endeavour out of its hangar on giant robotic transporters. With a wingspan of 78 feet, the shuttle barely fit between houses, telephone poles and parked cars. Crews cleared about 400 trees along the route so the wings could pass, and lifted power lines out of the way block by block. What should have been a straightforward trip through Inglewood and South LA turned into a slow-motion spectacle that ran well behind schedule.

A Pit Stop at Randy's Donuts

About 19 hours into the move, the shuttle rolled up to Randy's Donuts, the Inglewood landmark famous for its giant rooftop donut. Photographers swarmed the scene, and for a few hours a genuine spacecraft sat parked beside a fast food sign built to look like breakfast. It became the defining image of the whole trip.

Towed by a Truck Off a Dealer's Lot

The heaviest challenge came at the Manchester Boulevard bridge over the 405 freeway. The bridge could not support the weight of Endeavour's robotic transporters, so crews shifted the shuttle onto a lighter dolly. A stock Toyota Tundra pickup truck, with no modifications, then towed the shuttle and its dolly, a combined 292,500 pounds, across the bridge in a little over four minutes.

Nearly Three Days for Twelve Miles

The full journey took roughly 68 hours, far longer than planned, as crews worked around obstacles, cleared trees and threaded the orbiter through gaps that were sometimes only inches wider than its wings. Officials with the California Science Center later said the crowds along the route, estimated by some reports at up to a million people, were part of what made the delay worthwhile. Endeavour reached the museum on October 14, 2012, and has been on public display there ever since.