The Last Shuttle Flight

The Endeavour orbiter was funded and built as the destroyed Challenger orbiter's replacement.  Built in the late 80's / early 90's at Palmdale's Rockwell facility (right next door to our plant), it was the final shuttle to enter service.  I saw it land on the dry lakebed at Edwards AFB at least once, and it was the final shuttle to fly a space mission. Today it is also the last of the orbiters to be ferried to its final home, this one for permanent display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. On the way, the NASA 747 carrier aircraft took it on a long farewell tour throughout the state, including on a slow, low flyby of the Palmdale Production Facility.  One of our guys took photos, and when he posted the series, I was in some of them.
By the time Endeavour arrived in LA at midday, all work stopped, and including freeway traffic, as people pulled over and got out of their cars to gawk at the spectacle.

That's John and me

A closeup with the NASA F-18 escort