Riding piggyback on top of a specially modified 747 jet, the shuttle Endeavour will be the second of NASA's three surviving shuttles to leave the Kennedy Space Center and begin new roles as space ambassadors.
The shuttle, named after the ship that 18th-century British explorer James Cook sailed during his first voyage of discovery in the Pacific Ocean, will spend its retirement at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.
Endeavour was built after the Challenger was destroyed in a fatal accident in 1986. Endeavour's space life was relatively short by shuttle standards - just 25 missions over 20 years, totaling 299 days in space.
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