Space Shuttle Endeavour Gets $450M Museum Home in LA

Los Angeles just got a spectacular new way to experience space exploration history, and it's going to take your breath away.

The California Science Center announced this week that construction is complete on the Samuel Oschin Air & Space Center, a gleaming 200,000-square-foot building that will display retired space shuttle Endeavour standing vertically in launch position. It's the first time real shuttle hardware has been displayed this way outside a NASA or Air Force facility.

The $450 million project has been 33 years in the making, starting with a master plan adopted in 1993. The 20-story metallic structure rising over Exposition Park will nearly double the museum's exhibit space when it opens this summer.

At the center of it all stands Endeavour, a veteran of 25 missions between 1992 and 2011. The shuttle arrived in LA aboard a modified Boeing 747 in 2012, then slowly rolled through city streets in a procession thousands of Angelenos lined up to witness.

For over a decade, Endeavour rested horizontally in a temporary tent-like pavilion. In early 2024, crews carefully lifted the orbiter into its final upright position during an intense overnight operation that captivated the city.

The new display includes real rocket boosters from Northrop Grumman and a massive external fuel tank from NASA. The nearly 200-foot tall shuttle stack features multiple observation areas that will give visitors perspectives even most astronauts have never experienced.

The Ripple Effect

The building itself is an engineering marvel designed to disappear from the inside while commanding attention from the outside. Architects created a curved steel framework called a diagrid that eliminates interior columns, giving visitors completely unobstructed views of the shuttle.

"You don't have a sense there's a building at all," said Ted Hyman of ZGF Architects. "Instead, you're meant to feel like you're standing on a launch pad outside."

The structure's metallic exterior is visible from surrounding LA freeways and becomes especially striking at sunset. Inside, the shuttle gallery stays dim both for artistic impact and to protect the light-sensitive spacecraft.

Lynda Oschin, whose late husband Samuel's philanthropic support named the center, called it a "dream come true." She said the shuttle represents everything her husband loved: astronomy, innovation, exploration, science, math, and especially inspiring children.

Museum president Jeffrey Rudolph said teams are now racing to install the remaining artifacts and hands-on exhibits in the air, space, and shuttle galleries. The center plans to announce an opening date this summer, well ahead of the 2028 LA Olympics.

Thirty-three years of dreams, planning, and construction have created something Rudolph says is "better than we ever dreamed."