See the Space Shuttle ‘Endeavour’ in a Unique Vertical Display Before Its New Exhibition Launches at the California Science Center

This November, visitors to the new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center in Los Angeles will get to see the “ready-to-launch” “Endeavour” complete with rocket boosters and a fuel tank

Michele Debczak | Correspondent

July 6, 2026 3:21 p.m.

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Fifteen years after its retirement, the Space Shuttle Endeavour is set to dazzle museum spectators like never before. When the new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center opens at Los Angeles’ California Science Center in November, it will feature the famous NASA orbiter in its upright, ready-to-launch position, making it the first display of its kind.

“We thought it was the best way to show it. You see the whole system. You see what it takes from an engineering perspective and science to get into space,” California Science Center President and CEO Jeffrey Rudolph tells NBC4 News’ John Cádiz Klemack. “And it’s the most dramatic way to look at it. It’s a beautiful sight.”

The crown jewel of the museum expansion will be impossible for visitors to miss. The shuttle stack—complete with solid rocket boosters and the last surviving flight-qualified external fuel tank—stands nearly 200 feet tall inside the space built especially to house it. It’s meant to be viewed from various angles, from ground-level beneath its colossal engines to a top-down view through a glass floor.

“You go up slowly, [the elevator] stops at different levels. You see inside where the payload is, and at every stop you see something else, and when you get to the top and you look down,” Lynda Oschin, the widow of entrepreneur and philanthropist Samuel Oschin, tells Katie Simons of the Los Angeles Times. “The view is just unbelievable. It’s breathtaking. I don’t know what other word I could use.”

After guests watch a video tracing the Endeavour’s history, a rocket launch simulation complete with fog machines will play out as the walls open up, revealing the main attraction. In addition to the physical shuttle display, the new center will also feature 100 artifacts from aerospace history alongside 100 new exhibits, including a replica flight deck with an interactive control panel.

“The reveal here is fantastic, we spent a lot of time on it,” project director Dennis Jenkins tells Génesis Miranda Miramontes of NBC4 News. “When you walk in there, first thing you see is an entire stack of real hardware looking exactly like it did on the launchpad. It’s just awe-inspiring.”

Built to replace the destroyed Challenger shuttle, the Endeavour completed 25 missions between 1992 and 2011. Among its achievements were the first servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope and the first repair of a cracked shuttle windshield conducted in orbit. It was the last shuttle constructed by NASA, and the space shuttle program concluded shortly after its final flight.

NASA transferred the orbiter to the California Science Center following its retirement. Before it officially went on display, the spacecraft drew massive crowds as it was ferried through the streets of Los Angeles to its permanent home. The complicated journey required the removal of trees, power lines and traffic signals throughout the city.

“Space Shuttle Endeavour captivated millions during its flight from Florida and around California and then its historic overland journey from LAX to the California Science Center in 2012,” Rudolph says in a statement.

The Endeavour was displayed horizontally inside a temporary pavilion for more than a decade before the new center was constructed. The shuttle is covered in delicate thermal protection system tiles, and one wrong bump could cause permanent damage. That made lifting it into its launch position a massive undertaking. As Jesus Diaz reports for Fast Company, the process of raising it to full height and connecting it to its external tank took six months.

In anticipation of high attendance numbers, the free museum will use a timed-entry reservation system costing visitors a small service fee that has yet to be disclosed.

The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center opens to the public on November 13, 2026.

Michele Debczak | Read More

Michele Debczak is a writer and editor based in Brooklyn, New York. She appears in seasons four through six of History Channel’s “The Food That Built America,” and her work has been featured in Mental Floss, IndieWire, Eater and Vice.