As the Space Shuttle Endeavour glided by the south side of the Shalhevet campus last Friday, about a third of the student body was watching from the parking lot, where they had rushed to see the spectacle during lunch.
The Boeing 747 carrying the shuttle on its back passed by Shalhevet’s campus at 11:54 a.m.. It flew around the Los Angeles area, including Malibu, South Central, Pasadena and Anaheim, before making its final landing at Los Angeles International Airport, from which it will travel to the California Science Center to be on permanent display.
“When I woke up today, I didn’t think I would be seeing something that would make history or that I would be a part of it,” said senior Michael Lennet. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity — to see a Space Shuttle flying in the air over our school.”
At the start of lunch, Director of Technology Mr. Yossie Frankel announced that the shuttle would soon be passing over the school. Teachers and students ran to the parking lot and the old middle school yard and waited to see if it would be visible.
“It’s really exciting,” said sophomore Sigal Spitzer while she was waiting. “It’s great how the whole school has gathered to watch it … I’ve never seen a spaceship before.”
Mr. Frankel, who was waiting on the roof, guided the crowd’s attention towards the south side of the school, as the shuttle passed from west to east above San Vicente Boulevard.
A few students complained about the wait and the weather, which was clear but hazy and according to various websites had by noon already reached its peak temperature of 91 degrees .
“I’ve been waiting outside in this heat, and it was very blurry,” said freshman Laly Chriki. “You couldn’t see it well.”
After lunch ended at Shalhevet, Endeavour continued on in its looping path around Los Angeles. At 12:10 p.m., a Boiling Point team watching from the roof of the Archway Medical Building, at Wilshire Boulevard and Wetherly Drive in Beverly Hills, saw the shuttle fly over the Hollywood hills, the Grove and Park La Brea. At one point, it turned itself around and went straight towards the medical building.
Enveloped in growing haze, the Endeavour silently glided through the sky as two smaller planes vigilantly trailed its path. And though its flight was rather serene, its presence in Los Angeles prompted palpable excitement. From the roof of the Archway Medical Building, Boiling Point staff could see that people were watching from nearly every rooftop.
Endeavour was built to replace the destroyed orbiter Challenger after it broke up shortly after takeoff in 1986.It had spent 299 days in space and orbited the earth nearly 4,700 times.
The flight over Los Angeles was the end of a three-day trip that NASA designed to showcase Endeavour before its retirement.
“It makes me feel kind of small because it shows how humans have come a long way with technology,” sophomore David Ohana said. “We’ve come a long way. It makes me feel small looking at something that big.”
