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After breaking ground on the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center four years ago, the California Science Center has finally announced the opening date for the 200,000-square-foot expansion: November 13, 2026. That means less than two months after the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art’s long-awaited opening, its Exposition Park neighbor will begin welcoming visitors to the ambitious space filled with aerospace artifacts and hands-on exhibits.
The most famous of these artifacts is none other than Space Shuttle Endeavour, which has been installed in launch position—standing 185 feet, or 20 stories, tall—in the Samuel Oschin Shuttle Gallery. The gallery serves as the centerpiece of the expansion, which also includes the Kent Kresa Space Gallery and Korean Air Aviation Gallery, each with their own interactive draws.
In case you need a bit of a refresher on Endeavour’s history in L.A., here goes: After completing 25 successful trips to space between 1992 and 2011, the spacecraft was awarded to the California Science Center by NASA. Before it arrived at its temporary home in the museum—where it was displayed horizontally like an airplane—it made its way from LAX through the streets of Los Angeles, with tens of thousands of people turning out to catch a glimpse of the convoy. It was then on display from 2012 until the end of 2023, when it went off-display so it could be placed in its forever home: the soon-to-open Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center. In January 2024, it was moved and lifted into launch position (along with a fuel tank and solid rocket boosters), and the rest of the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center was built around it—reaching nearly 200 feet high to accommodate the shuttle’s height.
“With the stunning display of Endeavour in launch configuration, the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center will give us a greater platform than ever before to accomplish our mission to stimulate curiosity and inspire science learning in everyone,” said California Science Center President and CEO Jeffrey Rudolph during a media preview on Thursday. Afterward, we watched the premiere of a short doc about Endeavour, created by Bad Robot specifically for this exhibition. As the shuttle prepared for takeoff at the end of the clip, lights and smoke filled the room until the screen and wall retracted, revealing Endeavour and its cavernous gallery in very dramatic fashion. A hushed awe fell over the group of reporters.
I saw Endeavour while it was displayed horizontally back in the 2010s, but seeing the complete shuttle stack like this is a different draw altogether. In fact, the Science Center will soon be the only place in the world where you can see a complete, authentic space shuttle system, including the iconic winged orbiter, rocket boosters and fuel tank ET-94. And not only can you see it; you can view it from multiple angles—and peek inside the payload bay—and levels, from the second floor of the museum to the ground floor, where you can literally walk around underneath the orbiter. It’s pretty epic, to say the least.
Other highlights will include an interactive replica flight deck and a 140-foot-tall glass elevator traveling up alongside the shuttle stack, which will give visitors the same view as astronauts entering the space shuttle, stopping to let you see inside the hatch. There are also items that have been pulled from the orbiter so you can see them close-up; a row of computer consoles from Kennedy Space Center’s firing room; and a visual timeline of all of the space shuttle program’s 135 missions.
As a kid growing up in L.A., the California Science Center was the ultimate field trip destination—the High Wire Bicycle! Tess, the 50-foot-woman!—so third-grade me is jealous of all the amazing additions kids today will get to see. Speaking of my inner child, one of the most exciting things unveiled at the preview was the Shuttle Descent Slide—a 115-foot-long, 45-foot-tall slide that represents the shuttle’s landing, complete with two booms that mimic the sound barrier being broken. Its route mimics the S-turn a shuttle makes when it lands and will deposit riders on the ground level, face-to-face with Endeavour. (No word yet on whether there will be a charge to go down the slide.)
And good news: Even with the expansion, admission to the California Science Center will remain free. Though since demand will likely be through the (200-foot) roof, a system of timed reservations will be instated for entry to the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center. Those can be made in advance for a small service fee (last time around, it was just $2 to see Endeavour). To stay up to date on when you can start booking reservations, you can visit CaliforniaScienceCenter.org and sign up for the museum’s newsletter.
In the meantime, check out some more photos below.
