Shuttle's final journey captured in epic time-lapse video
Frame by frame, photographer Scott Andrews documented Endeavour's move to its final resting place.
We marked the end of an era in manned spaceflight as Endeavour was sent into stately retirement at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, Calif., in late 2012.
That final journey from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the museum in California was punctuated with a piggyback ride on a special NASA 747 airplane, a series of flyovers over NASA facilities, 12 miles of winding road through Los Angeles, and the filming of a Toyota truck commercial.
Time has unveiled the exclusive footage of the trip that was captured and put together by photographer Scott Andrews, along with a team of helpers. It took 12 cameras and 6 terabytes of data to create the video.
The Toyota commercial, which features a Tundra pulling the massive spacecraft over a bridge, provides a lingering popular image of Endeavour's last ride. Andrews' video does much more to highlight the impressive amount of work and consideration that it took to move the shuttle over its entire journey.
The video has it all, from attaching Endeavour to the 747 to the cheering crowds lining the route through Los Angeles. It's more impressive than any special-effects-laden Hollywood production.
According to Time, the video team had to cull 350,000 frames down to 9,500. It took plenty of computing muscle to put the final video together. The result is a fitting tribute to the end of an epic era of space innovation and the many people who made the dream fly.