The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, a new addition to the California Science Center in Los Angeles, will open Friday, November 13, showcasing the space shuttle Endeavour in a 20-story-tall launch position, along with interactive exhibits and galleries. The new galleries are expected to become a major draw for local visitors and global tourists.
“You can expect to see a space shuttle as a full stack,” said Dr. Kenneth Phillips, Curator of Aerospace Science. “What that means is it’s the orbiter we’re already familiar with, Endeavour. That’s the airplane-looking part of the stack. But it’s also the large orange external tank and the two solid rocket boosters that are responsible for accelerating that craft to the speed that you need to stay in orbit. So it’s the entire stack. It is completely authentic. All of the components have been flown before except for the external tank, which happens to be the only flight-certified external tank remaining from the shuttle program.”
The California Science Center will be the only place in the world to see a complete, authentic Space Shuttle System. In addition to preserving an important part of space exploration history, it will give visitors a chance to explore Endeavor from multiple angles and elevations.
Visitors can also enjoy a range of fun activities, including a 45-foot slide that simulates the flight path of an orbiter reentering the atmosphere. A high-fidelity cockpit will give people a chance to practice shuttle landings, and there’s an elevator ride to a glass platform above the orbiter’s nose.
“It’s quite an experience,” Phillips said. “One of the payload bay doors is open so that you can see actual cargo configured inside. You can take the elevator all the way to the top, look at where the crew went in, and then even take it higher to a glass platform that looks down above the nose of the orbiter,” he explained. “That was a view that only a spacewalker would have gotten.”
The center is expected to draw not only families but also engineers and professionals who worked on the shuttle program.
“It’s all authentic,” Phillips said. “Many of those who we expect to visit will be people who have worked on the program in NASA and related organizations, private sector, for their entire career. So they may well have touched this, which makes it wonderful because we have people who have a vested interest in sharing with their families this amazing work that they did to create all these machines.”
Along with the Samuel Oschin Shuttle Gallery, there are two other galleries which are also designed to help visitors understand key scientific and engineering principles related to flight and the exploration of the universe. All three galleries offer immersive experiences.
The Korean Air Aviation Gallery introduces the four forces of flight: lift, thrust, drag and weight. The three primary themes include learning to fly, everyday flight and advanced aviation. There are approximately 25 aircraft on display, including a 70-foot section of a flown 747-400 airplane, jet planes, and drones that visitors can operate over a scale model of Los Angeles.
“There is a show there for you to enjoy,” Phillips said. “You can see the interior structure of a 747 like you would never see it as a passenger. There are aircraft that show how robotic control of airplanes is very important, like the Blue Angels and things like that.”
The Kent Kresa Space Gallery takes people through the machines designed to explore space, offering a perspective on how they help us understand the universe and our Earth. The three main themes are rocket science, robots in space and humans in space. Visitors will be able to see examples of spacecraft from every stage of the U.S. human space program, including the Apollo-Soyuz Command Module (ASTP), Mercury MR-2, Gemini 11 and SpaceX Dragon capsules, along with engineering models of planetary probes, telescopes and Earth observation spacecraft.
It was a complex challenge to put a full space shuttle system on display.
“We had to assemble all the parts from all over the country, the shuttle, the external tank, and the solid rocket boosters,” Phillips said. “We had to build the first nine stories and then lift the shuttle parts over one at a time. It took us six months to do it. Then we had to protect the shuttle as we built the rest of the building around it. And then we had to get the logistics right for having several other very large artifacts, not quite as large as the shuttle, moved into position because none of them could be there once we sealed up the building. So it’s quite different than the normal structure you would build where you build a warehouse or whatever and you move your furniture in and you go to business. Not quite so when you’re dealing with a shuttle.”
The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center offers a rare opportunity to explore the history and technology of space exploration. By giving people a chance to see authentic artifacts firsthand and experience immersive STEM activities, the new galleries are expected to inspire future generations of scientists, engineers, and explorers.
This story was featured as part of our new California Tonight show. It airs Monday-Friday at 7:30 p.m. Watch on KCRA and KSBW.