NASA orbiter Endeavour is squeezing her way through tree-stripped streets of Los Angeles this weekend, en route to a permanent retirement home at the California Science Center.

Here's a Google Map of the route, with stopping points. Big shuttle is big. Bigger than the streets that must accommodate her. Basically, the whole thing is like the ultimate slow-speed car chase, but with fewer live news choppers overhead.

Above: BB reader Troy B. Asher caught Endeavour parked in a parking lot today. More of his pix here.

Endeavour as she moved past the shops, not sure if the crew stopped for a massage twitter.com/CNNkimsegal/st…

— Kim Segal CNN Miami (@CNNkimsegal) October 12, 2012

This past weekend, I accompanied Miles O'Brien to the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy Space Center. In attendance were present and past KSC directors, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, astronauts and space heroes of all eras—from Thomas Stafford to Cady Coleman—and many of the so-called "pad rats" who built spacecraft from the Apollo era through the Shuttle era. Miles delivered an amazing speech dedicated to those pad rats.

If you're familiar with traditional Japanese craftsmanship culture or you've seen the film Jiro Dreams of Sushi, you'll know why he calls them "The Shuttle Shokunin."

Snip:

The recurring theme here is of an extraordinarily passionate, proud, meticulous workforce that embraces a philosophy that is lost on many Americans. Here they take tremendous pride in everything they do – and for all the right reasons.

The Japanese call this shokunin kihitsu. Literally translated: the craftsman’s spirit. But that doesn’t do it justice.

Those who ascribe to this way of life take pride in everything they do. In Japan, sushi chefs, fishermen, and carpenters all practice their craft— no matter how seemingly menial—with a driving sense of obligation to work to their utmost for the good of all.

And here is an essential point: shokunin make something for the pure joy of it; carefully, beautifully, and to the best of their ability. It has nothing to do with fame or fortune. It is nothing short of an unyielding pursuit of perfection. At KSC, they have mastered a trade that demands it—and they have risen to meet the challenge time and again.

[video link].

There's a wonderful NASA image gallery here of historic photographs related to KSC's 50th anniversary, and here's a video montage they played at the dinner.

Mercury Mission Control, Astronaut Scott Carpenter. Astronaut Scott Carpenter stands in front of the Mercury Control Center at Cape Canaveral. Carpenter was the pilot for the Mercury-Atlas 7 mission aboard Aurora 7, which launched May 24, 1962.

If you're in California today, Friday, Sept. 21, you may have a chance to see space shuttle Endeavour's historic flyover of the state as it heads for the California Science Center in Los Angeles for retirement. Here are more details from NASA Dryden on the exact route and planned times.

The orbiter, atop its 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), is scheduled to fly over northern California and a large area of the Los Angeles basin beginning at about 8:15 a.m. PDT. NASA originally planned the transit for an earlier hour, but rescheduled to increase the odds of good visibility for Bay Area residents—fog is a factor there in the early morning.

"During the four-and-a-half hour flight, social media users are encouraged to share their Endeavour sightings using the hashtags #spottheshuttle and #OV105, Endeavour's vehicle designation," according to NASA, and there's a Flickr group for space fans. The official account for NASA is here. At 11 a.m. EDT (8 a.m. PDT), NASA TV will air Endeavour's departure for the flyover.

NASA Ames' Twitter account is a good one to follow today, as is Boing Boing pal Todd Lappin, who shot the gorgeous photos in this post. SpaceFlightNow is liveblogging, and they're also great to follow on Twitter today.

Snip from the NASA press release:

The SCA and Endeavour will salute NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center and the Edwards Air Force Base area after takeoff with a low flyby northbound to Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Any time after 9:30 a.m. PDT, watch for Endeavour from viewing locations that include the Bay Area Discovery Museum, Chabot Space and Science Center, the California State Capitol, Exploratorium, Lawrence Hall of Science and Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Next the aircraft will travel south, making a pass over NASA's Ames Research Center and Vandenberg Air Force Base before heading into the Los Angeles area.

Any time after 11:30 a.m., watch for flyovers of Endeavour passing regional landmarks such as its future home at the California Science Center, Columbia Memorial Space Center in Downey, Disneyland, The Getty Center, Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles City Hall, the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific, Malibu Beach, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, the Queen Mary, Universal Studios and Venice Beach, among others.

Finally, the SCA and Endeavour will land about 12:45 p.m., at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) for an arrival ceremony before Endeavour is taken off the 747. The orbiter will be transported to the California Science Center next month.

The exact timing and path of the ferry flight will depend on weather conditions and operational constraints. Some planned flyovers or stopovers could be delayed or canceled.

Filmmaker Dan Cohen is the guy behind "An Article of Hope," a feature film project seven years in the making. The documentary is done, but Dan's got a Kickstarter to raise funds to get it on television and into schools. Below, some words from Dan for Boing Boing readers about the film:

What could space shuttle Astronauts and the Holocaust possibly have in common? When I began my research into my documentary An Article of Hope, I thought I was making a film about a Holocaust story. But I soon unraveled a story that was much more than that. It is a story that crosses generations woven by the lives of three men, born at a different time, but brought together by a twist of fate.

At the center of the story were the Astronauts of the Space Shuttle Columbia. All from different backgrounds from around the world, magnificently diverse, yet threaded by a moment from the Holocaust, a horrific attempt to stamp out diversity.

Israeli Astronaut Ilan Ramon was a hero fighter pilot, a man who had the ability to rise to the moment. By the time he launched into space he was more than that, he was the representative of his country, his faith, and in his eyes perhaps, humanity. He searched for a symbol of this responsibility, and found a little Torah scroll given to a boy in a secret Bar Mitzvah in a Nazi concentration camp.

The boy survived to become a scientist – working on the mission. So Ramon wrapped around him the story of the scroll, demonstrating to the world what can happen when, in his words, “You go from the depths of hell, to the heights of space.”

In today’s fractious world, An Article of Hope is a story that needs to be told, a story about hope for the future. Our Kickstarter campaign will help us raise the underwriting we need to bring this story to millions across America on PBS. We are two-thirds of the way there. The campaign kicked off with a jolt, support from all over the world. We have just a bit more than a week to go to meet the goal of this 9-year project, to continue to tell the story of An Article of Hope.

And, why the Kickstarter if the documentary's done?

It took 7-years to make the documentary. We did it by raising a little money here, borrowing a little more money there, and a lot of love and un-reimbursed time from the director. Now the final challenge is to get it on television before millions. PBS is a non-profit network, which means we must bring underwriting to the agreement. With your help, the funds we raise here go toward final editing to conform the documentary to PBS technical requirements, broadcast rights and fees, promotion, web site, all of the things that would normally come from a traditional agreement, we must fund it all.

(Thanks, Miles O'Brien!)]]> http://boingboing.net/2012/05/15/what-do-astronauts-and-the-hol.html/feed 18 http://boingboing.net/2012/04/17/the-shuttles-last-flight.html http://boingboing.net/2012/04/17/the-shuttles-last-flight.html#comments Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:35:23 +0000 Rob Beschizza http://boingboing.net/?p=155093 Photo: Larry Downing / Reuters

Thousands gathered today to watch space shuttle Discovery take its last flight, lifted by Boeing 747 to a permanent resting place at Dulles International Airport. There, it will go on display at the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center.]]> http://boingboing.net/2012/04/17/the-shuttles-last-flight.html/feed 26 http://boingboing.net/2012/02/08/engineer-who-warned-of-challen.html http://boingboing.net/2012/02/08/engineer-who-warned-of-challen.html#comments Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:45:00 +0000 Rob Beschizza http://boingboing.net/?p=142798 he refused to watch it happen. [LA Times]]]> http://boingboing.net/2012/02/08/engineer-who-warned-of-challen.html/feed 17 http://boingboing.net/2011/12/19/last-look-inside-space-shuttle.html http://boingboing.net/2011/12/19/last-look-inside-space-shuttle.html#comments Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:40:13 +0000 Dean Putney http://boingboing.net/?p=134993

Submitterator vetran collectSPACE tells us:

collectSPACE had the rare opportunity recently to tour NASA’s space shuttle Atlantis to photograph its preparation for museum display and capture its glass cockpit powered and lit for one of its last times.

The photo gallery starts on Atlantis’ flight deck, and then proceeds to its now mostly empty middeck, out into and above the 60-foot payload bay, and then around and under the winged spacecraft.

Their gallery is gorgeous, and really appropriately shows the complexity of the space shuttle's controls. It hadn't occurred to me until now how little of the space shuttle I've seen.

Rare, last look inside space shuttle Atlantis - collectSPACE]]> http://boingboing.net/2011/12/19/last-look-inside-space-shuttle.html/feed 14 http://boingboing.net/2011/10/21/space-shuttle-progrumkin.html http://boingboing.net/2011/10/21/space-shuttle-progrumkin.html#comments Sat, 22 Oct 2011 04:35:20 +0000 Xeni Jardin http://boingboing.net/?p=125210

Forget it, everyone: there can be no greater jack-o'-lantern theme for 2011. Robert Pearlman tweets this snapshot of a pumpkin carved as an homage to the Space Shuttle Program, which ended this year. ]]> http://boingboing.net/2011/10/21/space-shuttle-progrumkin.html/feed 3 http://boingboing.net/2011/07/26/dont-tell-me-the-sky-is-the.html http://boingboing.net/2011/07/26/dont-tell-me-the-sky-is-the.html#comments Tue, 26 Jul 2011 18:41:15 +0000 Sawyer Rosenstein http://boingboing.net/?p=110792

By Sawyer Rosenstein for Boing Boing

“It’s still flying?”

This is a question I and many of my fellow space enthusiasts have been hearing a lot lately. As the space shuttle program comes to an end, public excitement around space travel seems to be rekindled. Attention sparked up again as people heard that Space Shuttle Atlantis was preparing to launch for the last time, marking the end of the space shuttle program. But for one young person, that interest had never faded, and witnessing the shuttle's final flight became an imperative, a very personal hope and dream. That person was me.

When I was 12, in my middle school gym locker room, I was sucker-punched in the stomach by a bully and subsequently paralyzed. Prior to this incident, I was a professional actor. I traveled from my home in New Jersey into New York City and was the voice behind some well-known commercials, doing voiceovers, jingles, and other spots. To go from performing card tricks for a DVD to my body playing tricks on me was truly a difficult experience. In the same situation, many others have succumbed to the misery of that experience, and in doing so, have become unable to realize their full potential. But I realized that there was still a whole world out there, and that one event, even an event this significant and painful, should not ruin my life. I wanted to be someone who never says never, and gets up when he is down. This is what has got me through life, and to where I am today.

After months of rehabilitation, I realized that I couldn’t go back to the summer camp I had been attending to study acting. My parents started looking for another place for me to go for summer camp, and they found the Lower Hudson Valley Challenger Center. The Challenger Centers for Space Science Education were founded out of the of the ashes of the space shuttle Challenger accident in 1986: the families of the crew members wanted to build a living memorial to their loved ones, and continue their goal of education (this fated shuttle mission had included the first school teacher). Now, there are nearly 50 Challenger Centers worldwide, and they offer activities that include running simulated space missions to the moon, Mars, and to rendezvous with a comet.. My family and I learned that the maximum age for the center's summer camp was 12, and by that time, I was already 13. But the director of the center, John Huibregtse, didn't turn me away. I became the summer camper who never left, and to this day, I remain an employee of the now renamed Town of Ramapo Challenger Center. This turning point four years ago was the spark that jump-started my love of space.

At the encouragement of a good friend, I took that love of space to Twitter and became @thenasaman. I was quickly overwhelmed by the response from people who shared the same passion for space exploration. I knew I had found something for me. When I was in the hospital again and again over the last two years, lying in a bed waiting for one of my 19 surgeries, I knew there were people out there who cared about me and were there for me all the way through.
One day I saw read a tweet from somebody who was “fed up” with the way space travel was portrayed in media, and wanted to start a podcast. I figured, why not? One thing led to another, and Gene Mikulka, Mark Ratterman, Gina Herlihy and I became the team of Talking Space. Who knew that our little podcast, which started out so small on September 9, 2009, would evolve into what it is today: a steady listener base of over 25,000 people, simulcast on the website Astronomy.FM, and a recognized media source by NASA.

And that leads me to my adventures at the Kennedy Space Center. We knew media would be swarming to cover the final launch of STS-135, and we knew it would be hard to get in. But we all applied for press credentials. With the help of the amazing Miles O’Brien, a former CNN anchor and science correspondent who was doing launch coverage for PBS and the website Spaceflight Now, I was accepted as a member of the press. My fellow podcast team members were also approved to cover the launch as media. The funniest part is that the entire team had never before been together under one roof (or in this case, a tent) at the same time. This was to be history for us, too, as the shuttle program completed its 30-year history.

As the team made its way to Cape Canaveral for launch, we anxiously anticipated what the final launch might bring. As we passed through the doors of the KSC press building, we were in shock. The sheer number of people packed into such a small space was mind-boggling. So many countries were represented. “Where were these people over the last 30 years?,” we asked each other. It was phenomenal to see such a turnout, but where were they for the lesser-known missions?
We sat in the sacred grounds of the NASA press auditorium. I was ready. The microphone was passed up to me. I asked my question, something I had seen many famous names in space reporting do. I received an amazing answer. The pride I felt in just being able to ask a simple question overwhelmed me. Who knows how good it’ll feel once I finally receive professional training, when I attend the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University this fall.
The astronaut interviews came and went, the press conferences began and ended, and the tours and visits to the launch pad concluded. I was within 150 feet of the space shuttle for Rotating Service Structure retraction. That was truly tremendous, to see the grandeur of such an American icon less than 24 hours before it leaves the tugs of Earth.

And then, launch day finally arrived: July 8, 2011. I had seen one previous launch before, STS-130, which was a night launch of the space shuttle Endeavour (I attended through the Make-A-Wish Foundation). But this would be my first daytime launch—and my last, and the world’s last.

To see the shuttle sitting on launch pad 39A, to look at the machine which mankind—not just Americans—sculpted, designed, built, and maintained, meant so much. There sat the pride of America’s space travels over the last 30 years. The most complex and beautiful machine ever built was poised and ready to show her awesome might, to light the engines one last time, igniting America’s passion for exploration and knowledge, and send into space the hopes and dreams of not only a nation, but of the entire human race. As the clock ticked down, and I broadcast it live to over 200,000 people listening around the world, we all held our breath together. The countdown clock stopped at 31 seconds until liftoff, as engineers examined a warning.

The vehicle was quickly re-cleared for launch and the count started back up. I knew that what was about to happen would remain embedded in the minds of all who witnessed it for years to come. The engines ignited, the shuttle cleared the tower, and then I saw…absolutely nothing! Yet, I heard…absolutely nothing! I looked for the vehicle, and I was suddenly temporarily blinded by some bright light. My eyes adjusted, and I saw the mighty Atlantis roar skyward, fulfilling the dream of a nation and a civilization of bringing humans into space. The noise of the engines gradually increased until it was deafening. You hear the vehicle, as the air crackles with life, but you also feel it throughout your chest as it vibrates you from the inside out. You can truly feel the power of the vehicle, not just in Joules or Newtons, but in the human ingenuity and pride from the thousands of people who have worked on it.

Anybody born within the last 30 years knows no other American vehicle for manned space flight but the space shuttle. Even though this program is over, the dream remains alive. After seeing this launch, I know that dream will stay with me forever. The experience of seeing Atlantis launch on that cloudy, muggy morning is permanently engraved in my thoughts. The feeling I had as the sound reached us at the press site will stay with me forever. I hope someday I will feel that again. I do not doubt that we will soon see an American rocket lifting off a launch pad in Florida, and that from the technological lessons we've learned from the space shuttle, that the next vehicle may be even safer, and that the advancements made since this program will help those on Earth. Maybe they will even allow me to walk again one day.

There is a phrase I live by. It is true not only for the space program, but for life in general:

Don’t tell me the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the moon.

-Sawyer Rosenstein

Photos: Courtesy of Sawyer Rosenstein. Shuttle photo: REUTERS/Pierre Ducharme.