Retired US space shuttle Endeavour has touched down in Houston, Texas - the first stop on its way to a new life in a California museum.
Bolted to the top of a jumbo jet, NASA’s youngest shuttle departed Kennedy Space Center in Florida at sunrise, Wednesday. Several hours later, onlookers cheered as Endeavour flew over its landing place in Houston, near NASA’s Mission Control.
The US Space shuttle Endeavour atop Nasa's shuttle carrier aircraft in Cape
Canaveral, Florida. Photograph: Bill Ingalls/AFP/Getty Images
Endeavour will spend the night in Houston before continuing its journey to Los Angeles on Friday. In mid-October, Endeavour will be paraded down city streets to the California Science Center.
Endeavour made its debut in 1992, replacing the Challenger shuttle, which exploded shortly after take-off 1986. It flew 25 missions in space, circling the Earth nearly 4, 700 times.
Space shuttle Endeavour sits atop NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA, Wednesday, Sept.
19, 2012, at Ellington Field in Houston. Endeavour is making a final trek across the
country to the California Science Center in Los Angeles, where it will be permanently
displayed. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Space shuttle Endeavour, bolted atop a modified jumbo jet, makes its departure from the
Kennedy Space Center, Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2012, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Endeavour will
make a stop in Houston before heading to the California Science Center in Los Angeles.(AP
Photo/Terry Renna)
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