Comments on: Shuttle Endeavour's California flyover, as seen from an FA18

By: Clifford Burton

Clifford Burton — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 01:15:00 +0000

No one said, “Hey, this looks like a ghetto route we can ravage…they chose the most practical route. If they blatantly took the long way to avoid nice neighborhoods, we would hear about it.”
Sorry, Erik, but “the most practical route” never has been (or ever will be) routed through the tree-lined vistas of the Blue-Bloods’ neighborhood, I don’t care how you spin it…And regarding your contention that we would have heard complaints about it if a lot of the people affected by the loss of their trees were really angered by having the greenery removed, they HAVE complained long and loud, but their grievances have mainly been aired on small networks like KPFK 90.7 FM rather than CBS or NBC during prime time. And when the protests have been aired by the major networks it’s usually in sound-bite form with no in-depth reporting on the social and ecological impact that tree removal entails for the affected communities…with the residents and their children regrettably portrayed as shortsighted, tree-hugging Eco-nuts who don’t appreciate the value of our space program…

Clifford
Santa Monica

By: Evan G.

Evan G. — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 22:40:00 +0000

At 5:30, after they pass over LAX, you can see the ghost neighborhood of Surfridge. Cecil B. DeMille and other Hollywood figures had homes there, but in the 1960s and 70s the land was bought up after LAX continued to expand. It’s now home to the once-endangered El Segundo blue butterfly.

http://www.lakata.org/arch/surfridge/
http://launfd.com/our-feed/los-angeles-ghost-town/

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 20:07:00 +0000

It will take decades for those trees to reach the size of their predecessors. In the interim, the people who live in those areas will lose out for a large chunk of their lives. All so that visitors can worship the corpse of a space program that we’re too cheap to continue.

By: zartan74

zartan74 — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 10:17:00 +0000

Huh? Whats different about the “original” trees than the “replanted” trees? Its not like we’re talking about an old growth forest here.

No idea what your numbering system means.

By: Timmy Corkery

Timmy Corkery — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 06:57:00 +0000

Astro Nine-Five Heavy may be the best band name ever.

By: deviceofmind

deviceofmind — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 06:56:00 +0000

The soundtrack is awesome – best line spoken by an F-15 pilot: At the 5:01 mark, “We’ll let him go forward a little on us…we’re not gonna hit nothin’.'”

By: Ian Wood

Ian Wood — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 05:50:00 +0000

No. US fighter jets really are that smooth. They have espresso machines, too. It’s fabulous.

By: Ian Wood

Ian Wood — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 05:49:00 +0000

The Swiss opted to store George Clooney’s gold instead.

I don’t understand it either.

By: Ian Wood

Ian Wood — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 05:42:00 +0000

1) Read the link. See the bit about replanted tree mortality?

2) Space Shuttle Endeavor: 05/92-05/11.

3) 19 years.

4) 19 years + 2 re-attachable shuttle wings (it’s NASA for fuck’s sake) = 400 LA trees for you.

Right on. We’ll preserve a diorama of the planet for your progeny after you’ve left.

By: robuluz

robuluz — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 05:15:00 +0000

Space Shuttle footage… super… awesome… Large trees… cut down… totally sucks…. Jet Fighters… Magnolias… Spacecraft… Pines… excited… pissed off…

*BANG* *SPLAT* head exploded.

I think I’m just going to look at the occupy scarf girl again. Thats a fucking great scarf, that is.

By: theman

theman — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 04:47:00 +0000

For a minute there I thought I heard Darth Vader, but then realized that everyone with a microphone was just breathing really loudly, lining up in a way that kind of sounds like Darth Vader

By: Erik Denning

Erik Denning — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 04:01:00 +0000

I live in L.A. and the chopped down trees got plenty of coverage. No one is trying to keep it a secret, nor could they. I trust that the museum and the city are committed to making up for the chopped trees by planting many more as compensation. No one said, “Hey, this looks like a ghetto route we can ravage.” They chose the most practical route. If they blatantly took the long way to avoid nice neighborhoods, we would hear about it. I’m not sure that showing off human/American achievement is propoganda. Would you rather they kept the shuttle in a hangar, where no one could see it? Also, you’re presuming it’s relatively cheap and easy to dissassemble and reassemble what may be one of the most complex vehicles ever made. If you have information supporting the feesibility of that, please share it.

By: zartan74

zartan74 — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 03:55:00 +0000

That’s a really great question – you can clearly hear the breathing, but no engine noise at all. Amazing noise cancellation, I presume?

By: joe blough

joe blough — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 03:26:00 +0000

i think, though it’s not important of course, that the video was shot from an F-15 Eagle.

By: John MacDougall

John MacDougall — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 03:26:00 +0000

Anyone know how jet fighters can sound so quiet inside – this sounds like it’s being recorded in a Lexus that’s parked.

By: zartan74

zartan74 — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 03:23:00 +0000

400 trees? really?
how long will it take to grow these trees back? a couple of decades? and, they’re planting many times more, right?

meanwhile this is one of a handful of vehicles that have repeatedly launched into space and returned under their own power as part of a (hopefully) early era of space exploration.

to me, the suggestion that temporarily “saving” 400 trees (a HIGHLY renewable resource) outweighs the importance of keeping one of our very few space shuttles intact for posterity demonstrates shocking historical myopia.

again, this isn’t a model space shuttle (like we have at the Dulles Udvar-Hazy center), this is an actual space shuttle that took off and orbited the earth with our astronauts aboard.

now – I’m not necessarily advocating this particular route, and I don’t know how reliable the replanting effort by the museum are. But angst about these 400 trees seems highly disproportionate relative to the significance of the Endeavour as part of the great adventure of human exploration of space.

By: ahecht

ahecht — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 03:16:00 +0000

Man, the smog layer at 13:00 is depressing.

By: Myles Gaythwaite

Myles Gaythwaite — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 02:36:00 +0000

Fighter jets are fucking huge!

By: Boundegar

Boundegar — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 02:24:00 +0000

I kept looking for the Swiss helicopters. Did something go wrong?

By: Ian Wood

Ian Wood — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 01:30:00 +0000

Covered it, but it’s still bullshit. That thing should’ve been chopped up and transported by trucks, then reassembled. I watched the first shuttle launch and watched the last landing, and the object itself still isn’t worth 400 trees. “Replanted” trees in Oakland had a 99% mortality rate (1990, “plantings without ceremony or community participation,” which I doubt these will get), and there’s little reason to think that LA will be different.

There is absolutely no reason for this. None. Other that pure, undiluted propaganda. Why the hell will museum-goers care that Endeavor was transported intact? They won’t.

Again: bullshit.

By: Mitchell Glaser

Mitchell Glaser — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 00:48:00 +0000

I watched the flyby from a cafe on the boardwalk of Venice Beach, and it was very impressive. They actually flew by twice. But there were a bunch of people who were too busy or too hip or simply oblivious to look up from their cheeseburgers to observe this once in a lifetime event!

I am looking forward to seeing them tow the shuttle from the airport to it’s home at the museum. Yes, it’s going to go through some economically challenged areas of town. I’m going to try to get a picture of the shuttle, an icon of modern technology, against a background of boarded up liquor stores.

By: Xeni Jardin

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 00:29:00 +0000

Alex, we already covered this issue here. http://boingboing.net/2012/09/17/as-space-shuttle-endeavour-ret.html

By: Alex Nano

Alex Nano — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 00:25:00 +0000

normally i’d be super stoked about all things NASA. And, indeed, i was – until I found this out. Granted, it’s local political oversight, and not NASA – but fact is it sucks, and needs to be made aware outside of LA.
In short, they chopped down nearly 300 old trees in ghetto to make room for shuttle.
I’m sure engineering minds could’ve come up with a far better solution. http://www.laweekly.com/2012-09-27/news/endeavor-trees-chopped-false-pretences-soboroff/