NASA: Endeavour Exhibition Revisits the Shuttle's Final Ferry Flight

NASA is looking back at the photography behind space shuttle Endeavour's final ferry flight as its Los Angeles exhibition prepares to reopen. In an article published on 12 November 2026, the agency says the California Science Center display will reopen over the weekend of 13 November, with Endeavour standing upright in launch position.

NASA's report describes how two photographers and a videographer at its Armstrong Flight Research Center helped prepare the visual record of the trip. Aircraft positioning, landmark selection and coordination on the ground all shaped the pictures that audiences saw.

The exhibition is the current development. The ferry flight itself took place on 21 September 2012, when Endeavour travelled over California aboard NASA's modified 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Keeping those dates separate matters: the new account recalls a historical journey rather than announcing another shuttle flight.

Planning the View From the Chase Aircraft

The agency used F/A-18s and an F-15 to escort Endeavour, carrying photography and video teams in the back seats. Lead videographer Lori Losey describes advocating for two chase aircraft over Los Angeles so that photography and video could have dedicated platforms.

The teams alternated altitudes and positions around landmarks to capture their material. The report describes preparations involving the California Science Center, the Federal Aviation Administration, Los Angeles International Airport and NASA's Johnson Space Center, alongside the agency's flight and imagery crews.

Photographer Carla Thomas also surveyed the route from a Los Angeles Police Department helicopter. Planning around the Hollywood sign required attention to the hillside, power lines and radio antennas. Those details illustrate how the images depended on advance route work rather than simply pointing a camera at the shuttle.

A Flight Across Familiar Landmarks

The journey passed sites including the Golden Gate Bridge, Disneyland, Griffith Park, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and the California State Capitol. NASA's account emphasises both the views from the aircraft and the crowds gathered below.

Endeavour completed 25 missions and helped begin assembly of the International Space Station by delivering its first components to orbit, according to NASA. The agency says the shuttle and some of the ferry-flight images will be seen in its permanent home at the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center.

This is a single-source report based on NASA's published retrospective. The exhibition timing is attributed to that announcement, while the flight descriptions concern the 2012 journey. The article offers a record of the planning and people behind those photographs, not evidence of a new operational mission.