LA - California Science Center

California Science Center

--Aaron

Endeavour

Endeavour Simulator

            I loved the California Science Center. The space shuttle Endeavour, built to replace Challenger, was located there. Endeavour flew 25 missions, one to clear the Hubble Telescope’s cloudy vision. All Endeavour missions were successful. We also rode on an Endeavour mission simulator. Space stuff was found all around the museum.

3 ginormous boosters and 2 smaller ones

spacehab, payload

            The Endeavour was huge. It was white and black. Astronauts lived in the front third of the shuttle. But the closest sixth was the Spacehab. It offered more living space and contained experiments to do in space. I was surprised to see that Endeavour had 3 ginormous boosters and 2 smaller ones at the back.

            A timeline of all STSs was on some walls. The last one was STS-135. It showed that Challenger and Columbia were destroyed. It sort of seems like ‘c’ is unlucky because the two and only ones that started with it were destroyed.

            A 3-D movie called Galapagos Islands was very awesome. It talked a lot about the Galapagos Islands. They are volcanic islands directly on the equator 600 miles away from the coast of South America. Many species of animal that live there live nowhere else in the world!

            The exhibit Ecosystems is found around the Endeavour. The Rot Room showed some of nature’s decomposers. The Deep Sea room talked about high pressure while the desert talked about surviving in the heat. Another one, the Polar Zones, have real ice that you could touch! The Rocky Shores room talked about life in the sea. 

            I learned some new things that day in the museum, like spiders in the Galapagos Islands don’t have eyes if they live in tunnels! I want to learn more things by going there again and again. It’s the best place ever! 

Viking lander on Mars

space suit

California Science Center

--Gorden

Endeavour Exhibition

In Los Angeles, we went to see Endeavour.

There are 5 space shuttles, 2 explored, 3 survived. Endeavour is the latest one. Endeavour went on 25 missions. California Science center is its permanent home after it retired a few year ago.

space toilet

The space shuttle is mostly white, but black on the bottom. It is enormous. We saw a lot of equipment, like space toilet, odd food station where they heat up the food. I went on Endeavour simulator. There is a screen at the front that gives you a lot of information. It rocks and shakes to simulate blasting off to space then safely back to earth.

California Science Center is the best place ever. I wish we can go there again to learn more!

kelp forest