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Free entertainment - Space Shuttle Endeavour

Lurch

Lurch

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Long Beach, CA
For those of you in the LA area tomorrow morning, the space shuttle Endeavour will be making a fly by on the back of a 747 across the Southland.

The flight plan has not been released, but it sounds like it will be making passes over DTLA, Griffith Park, USC, the LBC, Disneyland and Universal Studios around 1030 before landing at LAX. Hopefully they will release more specifics tomorrow.

This is the last time one of these puppies will likely be airborne so it is a bit of a historical momemnt, plus just a plain awesome sight to see in person.
 
My schedule is tight since we have to be at Sebastian's pre-school for his birthday party at 11:00 but I plan to be on the rooftop at my wife's building at 10:15 - about 10:45 with my big camera.
 
Supposed to have overflown Tucson today, with a fueling or technical stop. Unfortunately, I was stuck in side the building all day today, so didn't have any opportunity to see.

David Bricker / SYR - TUS
 
Sometimes it helps when your wife manages a high rise office building.

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I actually worked all night last night but this was totally worth staying up all night for.

What really made my day though was the shot I missed. I got off the freeway at Sepulveda and saw it heading right for me over the 110. I quickly pulled into a parking lot and tried to get the camera out, no time for that but it flew directly over my head low enough that I could see the markings on the escort planes.
 
It's probably more of a drag penalty than a weight issue. The 747-200 has a carrying capacity of around 200,000 lbs, if I remember correctly. I don't think the shuttle weighs near that much.

Trivia - the 747 was leased, then purchased from American Airlines. In some of the early shuttle trip from Edwards to Florida, you could still see the AA logo through the new polish job.

David Bricker / SYR
 
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