Endeavour Comes to Los Angeles

Name: Endeavour Comes to Los Angeles
Start: 2012-09-21T00:00:00-07:00
End: 2012-09-21T23:59:59-07:00
Location: Griffith Observatory

On Friday, September 21, 2012, Griffith Observatory hosted thousands of people for multiple flyovers by the space shuttle Endeavour as it passed over Los Angeles landmarks prior to landing at LAX.

Watch Video

Upcoming NASA Events at Griffith Observatory

On Friday, September 21, 2012, Griffith Observatory hosted thousands of people for multiple flyovers by the space shuttle Endeavour as it passed over Los Angeles landmarks prior to landing at LAX. Observatory video and pictures from the event are available on our Griffith TV page.

Even flying on the back of a specially modified Boeing 747, Space Shuttle Endeavour had no trouble locating Griffith Observatory on the south slope of Mount Hollywood on 21 September 2012, and one of the Shuttle’s chase planes caught both icons of space from a higher perspective.

On the way to a new home in the California Science Center’s Samuel Oschin Space Shuttle Endeavour Display Pavilion, Endeavour made personal appearances on Friday, 21 September 2012, at many California landmarks, including Griffith Observatory, where Shuttle seekers carpeted the grounds and overwhelmed the surrounding terrain in a gathering that dwarfed any previous event in the Observatory’s 77-year history.

Griffith Observatory Deputy Director Mark Pine presided over the Space Shuttle flyover. In the midst of the dense crowd, he explains on camera, in a live NBC Channel 4 broadcast to news anchor Colleen Williams, that no one else should attempt to get to the Observatory, whose Space Shuttle dance card is full.

Endeavour was booked to fly over Griffith Observatory, not land there, and in fact, there was no room left on the hill for the Space Shuttle to park.

Griffith Observatory was fully loaded for the Space Shuttle an hour before the flyover. The Los Angeles Fire Department was already on the scene with a firefighter on top of a fully extended ladder for the closest look at the spacecraft once it arrived.