Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Endeavour’s 2-Day Drive Through LA in Less Than 3 Minutes

Here’s a fantastic timelapse compilation of space shuttle Endeavour’s big drive through the streets of Los Angeles. Photographer/cinematographer Matthew Givot and his team followed the shuttle during the 2-day ‘endeavor’ — a drive that included photo-ops of the shuttle driving past several well-known L.A. landmarks. There were also some tight squeezes and ‘back-up-and-start-over’ turns and corners. Driving a space shuttle through a metropolis like LA is a little more complicated than initially thought, as the trip took 17 hours longer than originally planned. But it’s obvious from the reactions of the crowds and the look on people’s faces that Endeavour will be well-loved in her new home.

Mission 26 The Big Endeavour from Givot on Vimeo.

Below is another video of the move from NASA:

If you want to see more of the move, Robert Pearlman from collectSPACE.com has a gallery of over 150 images of the drive, and NASA’s Flickr page has a huge collection, too. Here’s a great one from Robert:

Space shuttle Endeavour drives by the iconic Randy’s Donuts in LA. Credit: Robert Pearlman, collectSPACE.com

11 Replies to “Endeavour’s 2-Day Drive Through LA in Less Than 3 Minutes”

  1. If this shuttle and all it has accomplished, is not proof of humanities accomplishments, and our NEED of further accomplishment… I have no idea what is.

    I just wish the masses, that want funds for such damned-amazing accomplishments cut, could see it too 🙁

    1. The Ford Pinto has a much lower death-to-passenger mile number than the SST. So if you want to glorify a NASA project, SST does not come to my mind. A complicate delivery system certainly does not qualified as the apex of human scientific accomplishment. CERN, maybe? Voyager? Apollo?

    2. As a now retired laborer who loves the space program, I also wish some of the masses and frankly some academics would appreciate those overpaid people, who sweat by the hour, making things, paying taxes, that support everyone who gets to get paid pondering research. It is comical to allow American manufacturing to bite the dust and expect the NASA budget not to suffer.

  2. This ‘mission’ may be the most important mission Endeavor has ever performed? Millions will see her and think or dream about where she’s been and what she’s done. Truly an inspirational ship. My hope is that her current mission inspires us toward even greater achievements!

  4. Aliens must scratch their heads in amazement at how we humans organize life in such time consuming ways.

  6. “The Ford Pinto has a much lower death-to-passenger mile number than the SST.”
    I don’t know where you could have come up with such a statistic – I suspect you made it up. Given the many, MANY, millions of miles the shuttles traveled it just cannot be true.
    “A complicate delivery system certainly does not qualified as the apex of human scientific accomplishment.”
    Oh? Why not? It was the most , yes, complicated machine ever built. It was not perfect but it worked way more often than not. Yes, it killed some people – most very regrettable. But its technology was on the razor edge of possibilty. If that is not the apex of human scientific accomplishment I don’t know what is. CERN, Voyager, Apollo, are all excellent in their own way, but they do not overshadow the SST.
    For what it was tasked to do, and with the interference of politics and budget problems, it is astonishing what the scientists and engineers managed to build..

    1. Pinto: 27 gas-tank fire deaths in 2×10^6 Pintos produced @20,000miles each = 4×10^10 miles for a 7×10^-10 gas-tank-death per mile.

      SST: 14 deaths in 135 mission of 2.9×10^6 miles per mission = 3.9×10^8 miles for a 3.6×10^-8 death per mile.

      So, not even close: Pinto gas-tank explosion is some 50 times less likely to cause death than the SST.

      I said ‘scientific accomplishment’, not engineering accomplishment. Please know the difference.

  7. Amazing to see this vehicle which regularly traveled at 18,000+ mph moving at 2 mph to its final home. It’s clear from the joy and warmth of the crowd that American’s support the space program and love the adventure.

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