I watched Endeavour's final flight from the top of Mount Hollywood!
| On September 21st, 2012, I stood on the peak of Mount Hollywood to witness the final flight of the space shuttle Endeavour. |
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| Around me were about a dozen photographers with their humongous zoom lenses, along with about two-dozen non-photographers with their small point-and-shoot cameras and iphones. |
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| That morning, Endeavour was scheduled to fly from Edwards
Air Force Base, the last stop on its journey from Florida,
to Los Angeles. A few weeks after arriving in Los Angeles,
it was expected to travel, via the streets of LA, to the
California Science Center where it would be put on exhibit. Before landing at LAX, the shuttle, riding on a NASA Boeing 747, was scheduled to fly over a number of California landmarks. Malibu, the Queen Mary, Universal Studios Hollywood, Downtown Los Angeles, the Getty Center, Griffith Observatory, and Disneyland, were all on the list. Below us, tiny people packed the front lawn of Griffith Observatory. Cars filled the parking lot and overflowed onto the surrounding roads forming snakes of parked cars on every road as far as the eye could see. Around the park there were people standing along most every visible ridge. At about the same time that Endeavour left Edwards Air Force Base, I had parked far below the top of Mount Hollywood, just off Fern Dell Drive in Griffith Park, and begun my hike up to the top of Mount Hollywood, the highest peak in Griffith Park, hoping for the perfect vantage point to take in Endeavour’s final flight. “Ventura,” someone near me shouted out; the shuttle was nearing Los Angeles. A few minutes later I heard him say, “Malibu,” and then, “Santa Monica!” Everyone on Mount Hollywood scanned the distance. Soon, I spotted a fuzzy dot. As the dot grew bigger, I peered at it through my binoculars. I immediately recognized what I had been seeing over the past few days on the TV news. It was the space shuttle Endeavour atop a NASA 747. Two fighter jets flew by its side, like moons orbiting a planet. |
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| Before long, the moment we’d been waiting hours for finally
arrived. We watched as the shuttle flew over Hollywood, with Downtown Los Angeles
forming the backdrop. There were a few subdued oohs and aahs, but mostly I heard the rapid-fire
clicking of camera shutters. It wasn’t until the tail of the
aircraft began to head away from us that people began to
applaud. Then, I heard someone say, “They’re going to do another loop!” Sure enough, a few minutes later, the NASA 747, bearing Endeavour, turned and headed toward us. This time, it passed so breathtakingly close to us that what we were seeing didn’t seem real. The crowd on Mount Hollywood cheered the entire time. Just before saying goodbye, the pilot took Endeavour over Universal Studios Hollywood, giving us a chance to see it near the Hollywood Sign. Then we watched Endeavour head off toward JPL until it finally disappeared. |
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| I did this on September 21st, 2012. |
| Jen's video footage of Endeavour as seen from the top of Mount Hollywood: |
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jen is also known as J.W. Lynne, a best selling author of eleven novels. Click on any of the titles below to see the book on Amazon! THE UNKNOWN: Eight kids learn the shocking reason why they were kidnapped. ABOVE THE SKY: A girl lives in a world where touching her soulmate is forbidden. THE DARKNESS OUTSIDE: A teen is locked in a bunker to take a simulated trip to the moon. KID DOCS: An experimental program turns kids into doctors. WILD ANIMAL SCHOOL: A girl falls in love with a boy at an exotic animal ranch. WHAT HE DIDN'T TELL ME: A traumatized girl meets a boy with a horrible secret. IF I TELL: A teen wonders if her father is a serial killer. Besides reading books and dreaming up stories to write, Jen's favorite activities are singing along to musical theater soundtracks and hiking in California's beautiful parks. **Jen's books are available on Kindle Unlimited.** |