The NASA space shuttle Endeavour will be retired at the end of 2023 and will not be seen to the public for a few years.

Since October 30, 2012, the orbiter Endeavour, also known as OV-105, has been on display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. The public had unparalleled access to the spaceship during the 11-year exhibition, which took place in the center’s specially constructed Samuel Oschin Pavilion. Not only could they walk around Endeavour, but they could also walk under it because it was positioned horizontally on raised mounts.

With two solid rocket boosters and an external tank, similar to what was last seen on the launch pad, the science center is now getting ready to take Endeavour vertical. Inside the new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, which is being built next to the main science center structure in Los Angeles’ Exposition Park, the centerpiece will be a 20-story-tall display.

Even if the work to stack Endeavour is anticipated to be finished in the first part of 2024, the building and its exhibits won’t be ready for public viewing for a few more years, during which time the space shuttle won’t be accessible to the public.
When the science center shuts on Sunday, December 31 at 5 p.m. PST, those who depart will be the last to see Endeavour on exhibit.

“You could be very intimate with Endeavour by being able to walk under her,” Dennis Jenkins, the project manager for the California Science Center’s space shuttle display, said in an interview with collectSPACE.com. “I’m going to miss how Endeavour is right now.”

“That said, how she’s going to be when we reopen in a couple of years will be fantastic. So we are trading an extremely interesting exhibit for an even more interesting exhibit,” he said.

While the science center did keep track of every visitor who came to see Endeavour, during the pavilion’s opening period, approximately 20 million people visited the facility, with the majority of those visitors seeing the space shuttle. Families and school groups visited the pavilion, but Endeavour also served as the focal point for several Hollywood premieres, including the 2013 Blu-ray and DVD release of “Star Trek Into Darkness,” starring Leonard Nimoy and directed by J.J. Abrams, and the television series “Extant,” starring Halle Berry. It also served as the backdrop for the annual Yuri’s Night world space party.

In fact, the pavilion itself appeared in a few motion pictures. In the 2014 short film “Satellite Beach,” which was directed by his brother Andrew Wilson, Luke Wilson starred opposite Endeavour. Additionally, the scenario of Roland Emmerich’s action film “Moonfall” from 2022 included the space shuttle being brought out of retirement.

A number of the former crew members of Endeavour also came to view their prior space flight.

“I recently received an email from an astronaut stating that they had visited Endeavour for the final time before it was taken out of display,” California Science Center President and CEO Jeffrey Rudolph stated in a collectSPACE interview.
The majority of guests, regardless of identity, responded in the same way when they initially saw the black and white orbiter positioned just out of reach.

“Everyone was in awe and had their mouths hanging open when they first walked in and saw it, but I really enjoyed watching the children.” That’s what I’m going to remember most,” Rudolph remarked.

A temporary exhibit at the California Science Center, which includes some space shuttle memorabilia, will give visitors a sneak peek of the vertical exhibition that will soon be housed at the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, while space shuttle Endeavor is not in view.

The other two orbiters, Discovery and Atlantis, are still on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida and the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia, respectively. The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft that carried Endeavour to Los Angeles is available for tours at Space Center Houston in Texas, while the prototype Enterprise is on display at the Intrepid Museum in New York.