EXHIBITION PARKS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) — The California Science Center opened its Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center to the public Friday, showcasing the Space Shuttle Endeavor on display in a nearly 200-foot-tall launch configuration.
The morning grand opening program was followed by a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. and an opening to the public at the Science Center, 700 Exposition Park Drive.
Astronauts were among the participants, including the six crew members of Endeavor’s latest mission, STS-134, commanded by now-Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.
“Kids from all over the country will visit this place, look at this spaceship and be inspired to build hard things and do hard things,” Kelly said. “They will be inspired to explore and dream of the future.”
Endeavor is featured with authentic solid rocket boosters and an external fuel tank, creating what the Science Center believes is the only complete, authentic space shuttle system visible anywhere in the world.
The 200,000-square-foot expansion nearly doubles the Science Center’s exhibit space and includes 100 aerospace artifacts and 100 hands-on exhibits focused on science and engineering.
The shuttle’s gallery rises nearly 200 feet and includes a 140-foot elevator up the launch stack to a glass-floor observation platform above the orbiter. Other exhibits allow visitors to try out a shuttle landing simulator, sit in a replica flight deck and ride down a 45-foot slide designed to evoke the shuttle’s return to Earth’s atmosphere.
The center has three multi-level galleries: the Samuel Oschin Shuttle Gallery, the Korean Air Aviation Gallery and the Kent Kresa Space Gallery.
At the future Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, the very first artifacts are now in place, with more to come about humans and robots in space, as well as the rockets that take them there.
The Aviation Gallery features more than a dozen aircraft, including gliders and fighters, as well as part of a Korean Air Boeing 747-400. Visitors can experience a five-minute simulated flight from Los Angeles to Seoul, the center said.
The space gallery features spacecraft in flight, including the Mercury-Redstone 2 capsule, the Gemini 11 capsule, and the Apollo-Soyuz command module. It also features exhibits developed with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, including models and replicas representing six decades of robotic exploration and hands-on activities such as programming a miniature Mars rover.
Free lectures on astronauts and aerospace will be held every half hour during the official opening weekend, Friday through Sunday, with the final lecture scheduled for 4 p.m. Topics will include women in space, mission overviews and other aeronautical and space topics, with presentations from astronauts and experts from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center.
“Endeavour’s Long Journey,” a photo exhibit documenting the shuttle’s final flight over California, its 12-mile, 68-hour journey through Los Angeles and Inglewood, and its vertical installation at the Science Center, will also open Friday.
The exhibition will be on view in the Weingart Foundation Special Exhibitions Gallery on the third floor. It is included with general admission and no scheduled reservations are required.
General admission to the Science Center is free. Timed reservations are required for the new center due to anticipated demand, with a $4 service fee waived for Science Center members and same-day in-person reservations. Entry may be limited or unavailable without prior reservation.
The Air and Space Center will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.
City News Service contributed to this report.
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