Endeavour Flying Over Houston [Photo]

This amazing image released by NASA shows the Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) with the space shuttle Endeavour attached on its back, as they fly over the city of Houston, Texas. By cruising at low altitudes, the space agency honors the contribution this city has made to the orbiter program.

Throughout the 30 years that the Space Shuttle Program remained in operation, the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) was the home of the agency's Astronaut Corps. All those who flew on orbiter missions, to the International Space Station or elsewhere, trained at this facility.

Since Houston did not get a shuttle for permanent exhibition, officials at NASA thought that this symbolic gesture would go a little way towards making amends. The photo above was snapped from aboard a T-38 aircraft escorting the SCA.

Endeavour is currently headed for the California Science Center, in Los Angeles, where it will be displayed permanently inside its own pavilion.