Space shuttle Endeavour heads back to Kennedy Space Center in Florida

The space shuttle Endeavour leaves Edwards Air Force Base and heads back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Endeavour’s next flight, to the International Space Station, is scheduled for summer.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

The space shuttle Endeavour is parked in the Mate-Demate Device at NASA‘s Dryden Flight Research Center as it is being prepared for its flight back to the Kennedy Space Center.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

The space shuttle Endeavour, which is being prepared for its return flight to the Kennedy Space Center.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Jeff Swaney examines the thermal protection system on the Endeavour before it is taken back to the Kennedy Space Center.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

The shuttle is lifted in the Mate-Demate Device before being mounted on a modified Boeing 747.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Mike Mangione puts star tracker covers on the nose of the space shuttle Endeavour.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Pilot Eric Boe, mission specialists Donald Pettit and Steve Bowen, Commander Christopher Ferguson, and mission specialists Sandy Magnus, Shane Kimbrough and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper walk out of the operations and checkout building on their way to board the Space Shuttle Endeavour at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Nov. 14.  (Eliot J. Schechter / Getty Images)

Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off at Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 14.  (Eliot J. Schechter / Getty Images)

Spectators search the sky as the Space Shuttle Endeavour approaches Edwards Air Force Base in California on Nov. 30, 2008. The shuttle was re-routed to the Antelope Valley landing site because of bad weather Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Space Shuttle Endeavour approaches runway 04-left at Edwards Air Force Base.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)