A diva requires special handling and an entourage. Whatever the stage, the space shuttle Endeavour gets both.
A constellation of engineers and assembly line workers designed and built the shuttle in Southern California. A universe of scientists hurled it into space on 25 missions.
And in the coming weeks, after Endeavour is flown from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to Los Angeles, a cast of hundreds of engineers, police officers and utility and construction workers will ferry the shuttle over city streets to the California Science Center, where it will be permanently displayed.
PHOTOS: Getting Endeavor ready
Endeavour's Sept. 20 arrival at Los Angeles International Airport atop a modified 747 airliner ? and the spectacle of its ultra-slow-motion, 12-mile crawl through Inglewood and Los Angeles to the science center in October ? are expected to draw huge crowds and become a cultural meme for a region defined by its epic commutes.
It's a homecoming for Endeavour. The nation's shuttle fleet was built and maintained in Downey, Canoga Park and Palmdale by the region's once-titanic aerospace industry ? Rockwell International, Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Rocketdyne. Edwards Air Force Base was the shuttle's second home and alternate landing site if bad weather ruled out landing in Florida.
Endeavour's move to Los Angeles marks an end to NASA's space shuttle program, which flew its final flight last year after three decades. The three other shuttles are already in their permanent resting places: Enterprise was delivered to a New York City museum by barge up the Hudson River, Discovery was flown to a Smithsonian annex at Dulles International Airport in Virginia, and Atlantis will be displayed at the Kennedy Space Center.
Moving Endeavour through the streets of L.A. presents a logistical challenge worthy of the most technologically complex vehicle ever built.
"It's not a once-in-a lifetime event. It's a once event," said Marty Fabrick, who is managing the move for the science center. "No one is ever going to move a space shuttle through the middle of a congested urban area ever again."
GRAPHIC: Endeavor's final journey
Moving Endeavour isn't like transporting a house on a flatbed truck. It's more like hauling a five-story apartment building across L.A. ? a unique job that will cost the science center millions of dollars.
In the predawn dark of Oct. 12, the Endeavour will creep out of LAX on top of a specialized vehicle typically used in massive construction projects. The self-propelled modular transporter is a 160-wheel beast with the precision of a ballerina. It's able to carry 15,000 tons and turn 360 degrees in its own footprint. Such transporters are typically used to move bridges, ships and oil drilling platforms.
The 170,000-pound Endeavour will give it a light workout.
Endeavour will make its way along Manchester Avenue and Crenshaw and Martin Luther King boulevards. Maximum speed: 2 mph. It will journey through tidy residential neighborhoods and past schools, churches and sun-baked apartments that look as though they haven't been painted since the Apollo program.
Endeavour has circled the globe at more than 17,000 mph. But it has never inched past the giant pastry on top of Randy's Donuts on Manchester Avenue near the 405 Freeway.
"It'll be a lot of fun," said Larry Weintraub, 71, who has been slinging doughnuts at his iconic shop for 34 years. "I'm sure all the merchants in the area are hoping the people who come down to see it trickle into their stores."
Weintraub said that to celebrate, Randy's "might try something like a space shuttle doughnut."
Planning has been going on for nearly a year. Multiple routes from LAX to the science center were considered. But the list quickly narrowed because, at 57 feet tall and with a 78-foot wingspan, Endeavour can't go under the 405. It has to go over.
The urban canopy was mapped in detail ? every tree, utility line, traffic signal, light pole and street sign. Where underground utilities run close to the street surface, steel plates will be placed to protect them.
In recent weeks, crews have removed about 400 trees in Endeavour's path and trimmed many others. Removed trees will be replaced 2 for 1 by the science center out of $200 million it is raising from private sources to move the shuttle to L.A., display it temporarily and build a permanent exhibit space.
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