California Science Center Breaks Ground on Major Expansion

The California Science Center broke ground Wednesday on a new addition that will serve as a new, permanent home for the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

Dubbed the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, the 200,000-square-foot addition is named for the late Samuel Oschin, an entrepreneur and philanthropist whose private foundation underwrites a number of medical, astronomical, artistic, and educational projects throughout greater Los Angeles. 

The new building, which will nearly double the Science Center’s exhibition space, will feature 150 educational exhibits in three multi-level galleries themed air, space, and shuttle. The new facility will also house an events and exhibit center that will house rotating, large-scale exhibitions. 

Endeavour will remain on display during the first eighteen-months of the new project’s three-year construction timetable. Thereafter, it will be moved to the new facility, where it will be mated with a pair of solid rocket-boosters and a large external fuel tank before being displayed in its vertical, launch position. Endeavour will be the only shuttle so displayed.

The ground breaking ceremony—which fell on the 11th anniversary of Endeavour’s final touch-down—was attended by a host of dignitaries, to include former shuttle astronauts and a sounder of politicians—many of whom voted resolutely against funding space exploration. 

The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center is being made possible by a generous donation—the largest ever received by the California Science Center—from the aforementioned, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Oschin Family Foundation.

FMI: https://californiasciencecenter.org