Public space: Shuttle tank delights big crowds during its ride through Los Angeles
As the space shuttle external tank called ET-94 rolled toward them on Inglewood’s Arbor Vitae Street on Saturday afternoon, 6-year-olds Jonah Levy and Christopher Urbano offered a play-by-play of the slow-moving action.
“It’s getting closer!”
“Whoa! That’s so giant!”
“Look, everyone! That’s ginormous!”
Christopher thought it resembled a punching bag. Jonah thought its orange insulating foam seemed furry. And, nearby in the crowd, 84-year-old Dorothy Ramirez thought it looked cuddly.
“Don’t you want to hug it?” she asked.
Like the shuttle Endeavour before it, ET-94 drew thousands of spectators, young and old -- many grasping for the words to describe it -- during its daylong ride through 16.5 miles of Los Angeles and Inglewood city streets en route to its permanent home at the California Science Center in Exposition Park.
The 15-story tank’s journey began last month when it left NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where it was completed in 2001. It was welded to an ocean barge and pulled by a tugboat for 4,000 nautical miles. It rode out a storm in the Cayman Islands, traversed the Panama Canal and rescued four people off the coast of Baja California after their fishing boat sank.
The Space Shuttle fuel tank arrived at Exposition Park at about 6:15 p.m. Saturday. It sailed through its route from Marina Del Rey to the California Science Center, arriving far ahead of schedule.
The tank docked in Marina del Rey, crossed the 405 Freeway and -- most improbably -- sailed through L.A. traffic to arrive at Exposition Park ahead of schedule.
ET-94, perched atop a 42-wheel transportation device, started the drive in a parking lot near Fisherman’s Village in Marina del Rey at 12:08 a.m., with a New Orleans jazz band playing, a near-full moon overhead and dozens of people waving white handkerchiefs to bid it farewell in the cool night air.
Paula Madison, a member of the California Science Center Foundation Board of Trustees, walked behind the tank and said it was a perfect moment.
“It’s spectacular,” she said. “Think of all the thousands of kids who are going to see this. They are going to say, ‘People made this. And so can I.’”
As the tank turned onto Fiji Way, it was met by dozens of onlookers lining both sides of the road. They came in pajamas and on bicycles. And they posed for selfies -- even the police officers standing guard.
ET-94, which never flew into space, is the last remaining flight-ready fuel tank in existence. The tanks, which carried liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, were designed to detach when they were about 70 miles above Earth’s surface, then burn up in the atmosphere. Each launch required a new one.
At the Science Center, it will be displayed with Endeavour, positioned vertically as if ready for launch. Once completed, the exhibit at the museum’s Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center will be the only space shuttle in the nation with a complete set of real flight hardware, museum officials said.
You’d think something this darn big couldn’t get off the ground. Look what we can do when we put our minds to it.
— Eric Finister, tank observer
On Saturday, the 66,000-pound tank was pulled at brisk walking speed by a red truck bearing a sign on its grill that said “ET Xing.” It was surrounded by real astronauts walking with it -- and by children wearing astronaut costumes.
By the time it reached Fast Auto Loans on Inglewood’s Arbor Vitae Street, the procession had the feel of a street party. Branch manager Trashon Perkins turned up some music and handed out juice boxes to the crowd lining the street.
Mioko Lollis said her 11-year-old son, Jamier Flowers, had been talking for days about seeing the tank, which passed just a block from their home.
“This is like a once-in-a-lifetime thing to see it,” Lollis said. “For him, this is history.”
Jamier peered down the street for his first view of the oncoming tank.
“It’s getting closer, Mom!” he said. “I can see it!”
The cross-country move, financed by a science center fundraising campaign, was meticulously planned for months. Every pole, phone line, traffic signal and turn on the route had been mapped in detail. As the tank crept by, there were rolling street closures, with traffic lights temporarily removed and utility wires raised or lowered.
A little before noon, James Ziegler, 10, posed for a picture in front of the tank near La Brea Avenue and Manchester Boulevard, clutching an inflatable model of the Endeavour. He and his dad, Kelly Ziegler, had been following the tank’s journey through the city for hours already and planned to keep going.
James said the tank looked a lot different than he anticipated.
“I didn’t imagine it with the coating on it,” he said of its orange foam. “From far away, it looked fuzzy. Up close it looks like stucco.”
At Manchester and Vermont avenues, wide roads provided a particularly scenic opportunity for photographers as the tank scooted through the commercial area of pawn shops, thrift stores and nail salons with surprising efficiency and precision.
The tank took just 10 minutes to navigate the turn and begin the last leg of its journey -- a four-mile straight-away to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
California Science Center President Jeffrey Rudolph, walking alongside the tank, shook his head in amazement.
“I’ve been watching the thing closely out of concern that all goes well,” he said. “With the exception of a few minor delays early on, things are just great.”
As the tank rumbled toward downtown like a huge torpedo, Eric Finister tightened his grip on a walking cane and weighed his words carefully.
“You’d think something this darn big couldn’t get off the ground,” Finister said. He smiled and added: “Look what we can do when we put our minds to it.”
ET-94 finally rolled into Exposition Park about 6:15 p.m. to shouts of “USA! USA!” from hundreds of greeters.
Chelsey Chavez stood smiling with an American flag in one hand and a colorful, glitter-covered sign in the other that read, “Welcome home, ET!”
Giving it a thoughtful look, the 8-year-old declared, “It looks awfully pretty -- and pretty old, too.”
Monty Icenogle, a space shuttle buff who’s been blind since birth, had traveled from Bakersfield to witness the event..
“I wouldn’t miss this for the world,” he said as the immense fuel tank was being nestled into its new home just 100 yards away.
“So, its final mission accomplished,” he said with a smile. “How cool is that?”
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