What makes the Space Shuttle Endeavour display the first of its kind

The California Science Center in Exposition Park is the only place in the world with a 20-story-tall space shuttle stack in ready-to-launch position.

The display at the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center opens to the public on Friday, Nov. 13.

Visitors can view the spacecraft from multiple multi-level platforms, from underneath the engines to looking down via a glass floor.

Admission: General admission is free, but advance timed reservations are strongly encouraged for the new air and space center.

Fees: A $4 reservation service fee applies per person (waived for California Science Center members).

Also see: Space shuttle Endeavour goes vertical, is hoisted for display in Exposition Park

Shuttle basics

What people usually call the “shuttle” is actually the orbiter — the part of the shuttle that held the crew and payloads. The main engines are part of the orbiter.

Also see: Effort launches to restore prototype space shuttle that sat in storage for decades

In addition to the orbiter, each shuttle “stack” included two solid rocket boosters and an external tank. All the components were reusable except for the external tank, which by design burned up in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean following each launch.

Endeavour successfully completed 25 missions into space, including the first service mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as the first mission to add a U.S. component to the International Space Station.

Two additional aviation galleries are part of the center: Korean Air Aviation Gallery: Looking at advanced aviation with 25 aircraft on display.Kent Kresa Space Gallery: Rocket science, robots and humans in space.

Other things to see at the science center

Ecosystems: Walk through 11 different environments, featuring a 188,000-gallon living kelp forest tank with a glass underwater tunnel, a rocky shore touch tank and a desert flash flood simulation.

World of Life: Explore biology and life processes using interactive tools, featuring Tess, a 50-foot doll that demonstrates how human body systems work.

Creative World: Test structures against simulated earthquakes on the shake table, design flying machines, and experiment with transportation engineering.

Sources: California Science Center, NASA, Space.com, SCNG photos