14 DAY TRIAL // Officials at NASA announce that the Boeing 747 Shuttle Aircraft Carrier (SCA) departed the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), in Florida, today, carrying the space shuttle Endeavour on its final flight ever.
After storms and heavy winds delayed takeoff by two days, the ferry maneuver was allowed to begin. Eventually, after a series of low flyovers over several key organizations that helped the Space Shuttle Program over the past 30 years, the orbiter will make its way to California.
Endeavour is the last shuttle to be transported by the SCA, which is itself about to retire. Atlantis will remain at the KSC Visitor Complex, where it will receive a brand-new exhibition pavilion. Discovery was transported to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum, in Washington DC, earlier this year.
Once Endeavour reaches the California Science Center, in Los Angeles – an event scheduled to occur on September 21, if the weather holds – the SSP will be officially concluded, Space reports.