A United Space Alliance technician monitors the progress as the tail cone that will cover space shuttle Endeavour’s replica shuttle main engines arrives at Orbiter Processing Facility-2, or OPF-2, from the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Inside OPF-2, the tail cone will be installed on Endeavour.
The work is part of Transition and Retirement of the remaining space shuttles, Endeavour and Atlantis. Endeavour is being prepared for public display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Its ferry flight to California is targeted for mid-September. Endeavour was the last space shuttle added to NASA’s orbiter fleet. Over the course of its 19-year career, Endeavour spent 299 days in space during 25 missions. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann