Clearing Space for a Space Shuttle
Space shuttle Endeavour. Credit: NASA Headquarters
The space shuttle Endeavour has successfully completed 4,600 trips around the Earth, but the trip from LAX airport to the California Science Center, where it will spend its retirement, is proving to be a challenge on another frontier.
The shuttle is too tall to clear overpasses on the highway route, too heavy to be airlifted and too delicate to be disassembled for transport. With all other options exhausted, the center and city officials have resorted to cutting down approximately 400 trees to allow the five-story-tall, 162,000-pound spacecraft to pass through the city streets. The trees include mature pines, magnolias, ficus and myrtles. Cutting has already begun in Inglewood.
“Mission 26,” as the October 12 trip has been dubbed following Endeavour’s 25 space missions, is slated to be a two-day parade and citywide celebration. “Los Angeles is a world-class city that deserves an out-of-this-world-attraction like the Endeavour,” says Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in a statement on the matter. “We welcome the shuttle with open arms.” Some residents agree. “I’m really excited to see the Endeavour. It’s a once in a lifetime chance,” one resident told NBC Nightly News.
Ficus trees line the streets of Inglewood, California. Credit: waltarrrrr/Flickr
Not all residents are pleased, though. “It’s unacceptable to cut down oxygen-giving species just to let something pass by. I would love to see the shuttle housed here, but I don’t think we should lose trees that are 40, 60 years old,” West Area Neighborhood Council Board Member Johnnie Raines tells The Guardian. Los Angeles is a hot city and residents depend on their urban forests to shade the streets. The EPA says that shaded surfaces can be between 20 and 45 degrees cooler than “peak temperatures of unshaded materials,” such as an L.A. sidewalk in the sun. Many also worry about the effect losing the trees will have on property values in this already tough economy.
That’s why, as residents in Inglewood mourn their loss, residents four miles away may be celebrating their own trees’ close call. A shorter route that would also have required cutting trees was considered, but rejected partially due to the trees’ cultural significance. Leimert Boulevard’s pines and firs — planted in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. — have been spared.
The California Science Center will plant two trees for every one that is cut, but it will be decades before these saplings are able to provide the same environmental benefits as the trees that currently line these neighborhood streets. On the other hand, officials have said that the new trees will be more appropriate for the climate. Currently, the neighborhood’s trees consist largely of moisture-loving species like crape myrtles and sweetgum, both of which require heavy watering in dry, hot southern California.
All parties agree that searching for the best solution for city neighborhoods is, indeed, an endeavor.
This is horrible! We need those trees and not for furniture or houses but to sit where they are helping keep the air clean! Giving animals a place to live and all of the other good trees do for us! Let the endeavour find another way to it’s final resting place; or change the final resting place. The shuttle is a non-living piece of equipment. I don’t care what it has accomplished it is not more important than a living tree! Or any living thing for that matter. Why don’t people listen to what is going on with our earth? If it goes your shuttle will too.
I totally agree! It takes hundreds of years to fully grow some trees. Los Angeles is almost all concrete and glass so the trees which are so few and far between not only bring natural beauty. They are very necessary for the air quality which is not good in Los Angeles.
Just make a permanent display for it at the airport and let people see it there. Maybe even make another museum around it right where it is. Just don’t cut down the trees.
I’m extremely disgusted with the Mayor, who chose to kill healthy trees for a piece of metal, shuttle or not…there are always other options. Zero respect here.
I heard about this endeavor to transport Endeavor on NBC Nightly News, and I was shocked. 400 trees!? In drought-stricken New Mexico we’ve been mourning the loss of our trees in the forests and in the cities, so it’s hard to understand why LA would choose to cut down so many mature trees.
They are planting new trees that will transpire less water which is in scarce supply. This community should be honored to be able to have a piece of history in their midst. Let’s not take for granted the accomplishment of space travel. Who is going to save the earth from an asteroid? NASA…not trees on the block. Save yourselves, use less water.
Cutting down the trees is a Win-Win IF… the new tree species has a broader canopy (reduces heat sink), has denser foliage (more oxygen release), and has greater habitat value.
It’s a good thing they are not going to house the Shuttle in the John Muir Woods. Those 2000 year old redwoods will grow back in time! Why not use the Shuttle for a reef in L.A.?
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Mass tree-cutting for the Space Shuttle move is unnecessary.
Simple technical solutions are ignored by clueless local politicians.
Truck the Shuttle on its side to fit the road width !!
(wings vertical to the road, not horizontal)
Large industrial and construction equipment is trucked thru cities everyday… with no need to destroy roadway trees.
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Simply rotating the Shuttle reduces the required roadway width by 32 feet (… the Shuttle is 78 Feet wide, but only 46 Feet high). The Shuttle rudder (vertical stabilizer) could also be readily removed temporarily — sharply reducing required road width to only 25 Feet.
Those L.A. City streets are at least 40 Feet wide everywhere.
Ever have trouble moving a full size sofa into your home (??) Did you chop a bigger doorway … or simply rotate the sofa to match its smallest dimension to the existing doorway and hallway.
(…it’s common sense — not rocket science)
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The California Science Center is spending millions to move the Shuttle, but ignores a much easier (tree saving solution).
Temporarily removing an aircraft’s wings is the usual way of trucking a large aircraft… but it is a complex task with the Shuttle’s glued-on heat tiles — and NASA probably insists their ‘baby’ not be messed with (plenty of other organizations eager to have that Shuttle if LA can’t handle the move). So the LA bigwigs took the easiest solution (for them) — just truck the Shuttle straight and level, chopping away all obstacles … don’t worry about trees and residents– the show must go on !
It’s a simple engineering task to build a cradle to hold the Shuttle sideways while it’s trucked thru L.A. streets, but a MUCH better solution.
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This is a cool cool site that I support. There is more to this story than I find here. The reasons why trees are being cut is only part of the problems solved. Do some more research before you just post this alarming news. More trees and in fact twice the amount will be planted to replace the old ones. There is more. I posted on my fb page. Nancy Wilhite and made it good for public viewing.