a charter fishing boat sinking off the coast of Mexico with four men in urgent need of rescue. It required great skill on the part of the skipper to pause and rescue the fishermen without putting his cargo at risk. The rescued fishermen were transferred to safety in Sand Diego, where even this unusual cargo was required to go through Customs inspection.
It was amazing that it all worked out so well that she arrived right on schedule on May 18 at Marina del Rey where a special Mardi Gras-style Gala fundraiser was planned for the evening of May 20 in a large and elegant tent pitched right next to the tank itself, which had been offloaded from the tow-barge. ET-94 and host of wellheeled guests were royally welcomed by museum officials and a smiling Mrs. Lynda Oschin who, along with her late husband, Samuel Oschin are the main benefactors of the California Science Center.
With the addition of ET-94, the California Science Center’ s Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center will be the only place in the world that people will be able to go to see a complete Space Shuttle stack – orbiter, external tank, and solid rocket boosters – with all real flight hardware in launch configuration.
After an evening of celebration, ET-94 began the final leg of its journey at midnight---the 16-mile trek eastward to the museum, which was projected to require 18-20 hours to complete. This move was shorter than Endeavour’ s move, which had originated from LAX and took three days to complete. The Shuttle move was conducted among a celebration of huge crowds along the lengthy route with stops in various locations for speeches, a stage show and making a number of tight turns and maneuvers along the route. The jubilant crowds back then sometimes had to bide their time for hours due to unforeseen delays in the tight spots where wheel sets had to be physically moved to get around obstacles.
ET-94 may not have had quite the sex appeal of a Space Shuttle, but it was definitely a sight to behold. Rolling a 15-story cylinder on its side through the city streets of Los Angeles is no mean feat.
The crowds turned out for this move too. They were awed by the ET’ s size and presence. Many people came because they had been there for the Endeavour’ s arrival. Others flocked to the route because they had missed seeing the Shuttle arrival and didn’ t want to miss another once-in-a-lifetime experience.
As with the Space Shuttle, young people kept asking if this was the real Space Shuttle, or a replica? They found it hard to believe that these very objects were the real deal. That Endeavour had indeed gone to space and back a number of times … and that ET-94 had been meant to go to space had its orbiter not met with tragedy. And they could scarcely believe that the scars on the rustcolored body of the ET were caused by taking pieces of its foam covering for testing to determine what had gone wrong with the orbiter and how it could have possibly been damaged by a piece of lightweight foam.
Oh, there is still much to be learned from this spectacular pioneering form of space travel … the most complicated piece of machinery ever built by mankind … and we did it here, in the USA, over and over again. No doubt, Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon would feel very much at home at the Space Shuttle exhibit when it opens.
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