Anne, Ezra, Emilia and Ben. Perez watch as a full-scale mock-up of the space shuttle Inspiration is moved to a temporary home in Downey, CA on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. Its eventual home is the Columbia Memorial Space Center after it it refurbished. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
People watch as a full-scale mock-up of the space shuttle Inspiration is moved to a temporary home in Downey, CA on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. Its eventual home is the Columbia Memorial Space Center after it it refurbished. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Artist renderings are on display of the Columbia Memorial Space Center after a full-scale mock-up of the space shuttle Inspiration is moved to a temporary home in Downey, CA on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. Its eventual home is the Columbia Memorial Space Center after it it refurbished. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Show Caption1 of 3Anne, Ezra, Emilia and Ben. Perez watch as a full-scale mock-up of the space shuttle Inspiration is moved to a temporary home in Downey, CA on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. Its eventual home is the Columbia Memorial Space Center after it it refurbished. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
ExpandHearkening back to the golden days of Downeys role in the NASA space program and aerospace history, the community started moving a full-size original space shuttle design prototype across town readying it for public display in the years to come.
Downey community members and people from surrounding cities lined up along Bellflower Boulevard on Thursday morning, Oct. 17, to witness the historic move of the space shuttle mock up that inspired the nation’s mission to soar to space and return home again.
“This shuttle has been here as a part of Downeys legacy and history for 52 years, ever since it was built, and its an honor to be able to bring it out again on public view and to be able to restore it and have a permanent home for it still in its hometown,” said Benjamin Dickow, president and executive director of the Columbia Memorial Space Center.
On Thursday, Columbia Memorial Space Center officials began the two-day process of moving the massive model — built in 1972 as part of Rockwell Internationals ultimately successful bid to build NASAs shuttles — from a storage building, 12324 Bellflower Blvd., to a renovation facility just up the road, which will prepare it to be displayed in a new exhibit hall.
The prototype — named Inspiration — started the move dismantled, with the primary components, such as the crew cabin and rocket thruster, to be transported Thursday morning in full view for observers along the route.
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Additional parts will be moved Friday, but will be covered during transport.
A similar project has been underway for more than a year in Los Angeles, where a future exhibit hall is under construction that will house the upright, launch-ready display of the space shuttle Endeavour at the California Science Center.
Downey, which for years billed itself as the birthplace of the Apollo space program and other NASA achievements, was home to North American Rockwell, which became Rockwell International. The aerospace giant was the construction site for the Apollo programs space capsules and NASAs space shuttle fleet.
The company evolved from Vultee Aircraft, which produced military aircraft during World War II. The various incarnations were Downeys largest employers for decades.
Rockwell closed in 1999. The sprawling site on which it operated is now home to the Columbia Memorial Space Center museum, a Kaiser Permanent Medical Center, and the Downey Landing and Promenade at Downey shopping centers. Echoes of the space programs, however, appear all over the current buildings.
After the aerospace center closed, some of its massive buildings comprised the 78-acre Downey Studios, where such films as Spider-Man, Iron Man, Cloverfield, Van Helsing and Lemony Snickets A Series of Unfortunate Events were made. A full-size neighborhood of suburban-home facades stood there for years, created initially for Christmas with the Kranks.
City News Service contributed to this report