The space shuttle Endeavour always had plenty of elbow room while soaring around Earth, but to make way for its slow 19km journey through city streets next month to its final destination at a Los Angeles museum, some trees must fall.
Clearing an unobstructed route for the retired spaceship to take from Los Angeles International Airport to the California Science Center will require cutting down nearly 400 trees in all and the temporary removal of hundreds of utility poles, street lights and traffic signals, officials say.
The science center, which is organizing the two-day move, promises to plant 1,000 new trees in place of those taken down. It also has vowed to keep traffic problems to a minimum and avoid disruption of electricity and other utility services.
“It’s quite an endeavor,” science center president Jeffrey Rudolph said of the project.
He said planning began the day after his museum was chosen in April last year as one of four permanent venues for NASA’s newly decommissioned space shuttles.
Nothing like it has ever been moved through city streets.
The 75-tonne spaceship stretches 37m in length, measures 24m from wingtip to wingtip and stands more than five stories tall, lying on its belly on a special rolling platform that is to carry it at an average speed of 1.6kph.
The transport vehicle — which can turn at sharp angles — is “driven” via remote control by an operator who walks beside it, Rudolph said. The work is estimated to cost about US$10 million and is being paid for through donations.
“This is a national treasure,” he said. “It’s not just moving something through the streets. It’s moving something that will inspire children and adults of all ages.”
Added to the shuttle fleet after the Challenger spacecraft was destroyed by an accidental explosion that killed seven astronauts in 1986, Endeavour has flown 25 missions and logged nearly 198 million kilometers in flight during 4,671 orbits.
Its impending arrival has generated much public anticipation, but tree-removal plans sparked opposition by many residents in neighborhoods through which the Endeavour is to pass.
Rudolph said the museum has taken pains to limit arboreal impacts as much as possible to smaller or sickly trees, those considered invasive species and those likely to be removed later because of sidewalk damage or future light-rail construction. More than a quarter of them are on airport property.
“We believe we’ll leave the neighborhoods with far more trees and healthier trees,” he said.
Endeavour was scheduled to travel piggyback on top of a specially modified 747 jet plane en route from Florida to California this week, but its departure from the Kennedy Space Center for the first leg of its final flight was delayed until yesterday due to bad weather.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS