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Building the Endeavour exhibit

Jenkins inspects one of the escape baskets. For the past year, he has crisscrossed the country, scouring NASA scrap yards and asking old colleagues if they have what he needs to rebuild the Endeavour's launch stack, piece by piece.

Jenkins inspects one of the escape baskets. For the past year, he has crisscrossed the country, scouring NASA scrap yards and asking old colleagues if they have what he needs to rebuild the Endeavour’s launch stack, piece by piece.   (Red Huber / Orlando Sentinel)

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Dennis Jenkins spent 30-plus years -- his entire career -- sending the shuttles into space. Now, with the program part of a bygone era of exploration, the 57-year-old works for the California Science Center, helping officials figure out how to display their own orbiter, Endeavour.

FOR THE RECORD:Two captions on an earlier version of this gallery incorrectly referred to the California Science Center as the Pacific Science Center.

A big lift

Workers at Kennedy Space Center use a crane load 60-foot side rails that will be used in the Endeavour display. The California Science Center wants to showcase its crown jewel as if it’s on the launch pad, a display that will take thousands of pieces to pull off.  (Red Huber / Orlando Sentinel)

Inside job

Jenkins opens a compartment inside the mid-deck of Endeavour. Even before the shuttles flew their final missions in 2011, institutions across the country began jockeying to get one of the four orbiters NASA would give away.   (Bryan Chan / Los Angeles Times)

Ready to relocate

Endeavour inside a United Airlines hangar before its move to the California Science Center in 2012. Jenkins helped with the orbiter’s 12-mile journey through the streets of L.A.   (Bryan Chan / Los Angeles Times)

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