The California Science Center expansion debuts on Nov. 13
Strange shapes have been rising all around the Coliseum. Exposition Park has become L.A.’s hotbed of contemporary architecture, with the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center joining the Lucas Museum and BMO Stadium this month. The 20-story stainless steel cone at the heart of the complex houses the only space shuttle in the world displayed in launch position, and it is a showstopper.
“It’s been a long time coming and it’s finally here,” says Oschin’s widow Lynda, the lead donor for the new space center. “Seattle thought they were going to get it, and Houston was sure they were going to get it, but our proposal was the best.”
An aerial view of the Samuel Oschin Air and Space CenterCredit: Mike Kelley
Oschin was at LAX when the 747 carrying the shuttle Endeavour touched down in 2012 after a cross-country farewell tour to begin its three-day journey from the airport to Downtown. Jeffrey Rudolph, CEO of the California Science Center, and Kenneth Phillips, Curator for Aerospace Science, were there too.
The pair were determined to bring a shuttle to L.A. since the day the space plane’s retirement was announced. “The space shuttle,” Phillips says, “is the most complicated flying machine ever built. It’s about the human quest to understand.”
Credit: California Science Center
From Palmdale to Downey, the space program has employed tens of thousands of Angelenos over the decades, and Southern California is still a hotbed of innovation. New rockets from Long Beach and Hawthorne sit next to relics from the Apollo era in the new 200,000-square-foot museum complex. “The whole mission is to inspire learning,” Rudolph says. “And get people excited about science.”
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The massive complex includes scores of aircrafts, from a Wright brothers’ flyer to drones that kids can pilot around a scale model of Los Angeles to a full-size 747 rescued from an airplane graveyard and restored to offer a simulated flight from LAX to ICN [Seoul, South Korea]. “It’s our signature experience,” Rudolph says. “Especially for kids who’ve never been on a plane.”
Located in the Korean Air Aviation Gallery, the Pitts S-1C Special is a lightweight open-cockpit aerobatic biplaneCredit: Yeva Ohanjanyan
This space shuttle main engine, set in the Kent Kresa Space Gallery, was made by Aerojet Rocketdyne in Canoga Park,Credit: Yeva Ohanjanyan
All of these wonders pale next to Endeavour. We don’t want to spoil the fun, but let’s just say the shuttle reveal includes a new film by J.J. Abrams, a lot of smoke and a 45-foot slide with a psychedelic light show inside.