Toyota Truck to Tow Shuttle Endeavour to Calif. Exhibit Home - Space.com
Space shuttle Endeavour has been moved by rockets, its own engines and thrusters, tank-like transporters and industrial tows. Now retired and museum- bound, the NASA winged orbiter will add another, perhaps unexpected form of locomotion to its well-travelled history: a Toyota Tundra pickup truck. Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. 12) that its Tundra full-size pickup truck is slated to tow Endeavour during its delivery to the California Science Center (CSC), where both the space shuttle and truck are destined for display. Endeavour will travel the 12 miles (19 kilometers) from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to the science center on city streets, with the Tundra towing the shuttle during the last quarter mile (400 meters). 14), NASA will prepare Endeavour to fly atop its modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to LAX. The public will be able to watch as the Toyota Tundra tows the shuttle the final way to its new temporary home, the CSC's Samuel Oschin Space Shuttle Endeavour Display Pavilion, which will mark the finale of the orbiter's cross-country and... [ How NASA Flies Shuttles on 747 Jets (Photos) ]. Toyota tested. Once on the ground at LAX, Endeavour will be hoisted off its carrier aircraft and then lowered onto a modified NASA overland transporter originally used to move the shuttles from their Palmdale, Calif. Source: www.space.com
