AlQa'dah 3, 1433, Sep 19, 2012, SPA -- Space shuttle Endeavour began its new life as a museum piece on Wednesday, departing its National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) home in Florida and heading to the U.S. west coast. Attached to the top of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, the U.S. space agency's youngest shuttle departed Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral at sunrise on the first part of its flight to California. On Wednesday, Endeavor will travel as far as Houston, Texas, the site of NASA's Mission Control and astronauts. Along the way, low flyovers were planned over Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where external fuel tanks were built during the 30-year shuttle program. The spacecraft is scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles on Friday. In mid-October, it will be transported through the city to the California Science Center.
