Permanent home of Space Shuttle Endeavor opens in LA

All right. Happening this morning, the highly anticipated Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center expansion of the California Science Center will open to the public. It features Space Shuttle Endeavor standing nearly 200 feet tall in its full stack launch position. Mario live with the preview of the grand opening at Exposition Park. Oh, my gosh. It's so busy behind you, Mario. It's amazing. People are so excited. And what a cool experience, Roxie and Sandra. So we have hundreds of students that are making their way, and just check this out. They get to high-five actual astronauts, or at least former astronauts who are personally tied to Space Shuttle Endeavor. If you've been following the story and the history of Endeavor, you've seen that unforgettable journey through Los Angeles here to Exposition Park 14 years ago. And now it has its permanent home here at the California Science Center, and this is part of The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center. So what these students are doing is they're going into an area, a little video room where they kind of break down what the endeavor is all about, what they're going to see and learn about, and then the reveal. The Endeavor in all its glory, 200 feet tall, 20 stories high. And we were talking to Mark Kelly a little earlier. He said, as well as Tom Jones, they said that this is an amazing opportunity to share their experience with Southern California. Let me see if I can ask these students. They've all got approval. Hey, how cool is it to see these astronauts and shake their hands? It's super awesome. I'm so excited. How did it go? How are you feeling, buddy? Pretty good. Are you excited to see the Endeavor? Yes, really excited. Take it in, take it in, guys. Sorry, I didn't want to distract them while they're shaking these astronauts' hands, but what a moment for these students. Some of them are in high school, some of them are elementary school students, and you guys should have heard it earlier when they did the ribbon-cutting here with all these astronauts and officials here at the California Science Center. Thank you very much. The applause and the crowd. The crowd went wild. All of these kids are so excited. So they talked a lot about the next generation of space explorers and they are here now that the California Science Space Center here has expanded. So it's really cool to see. You've got to come check it out. It officially is open and lots of people are excited about it. We're now live here at Exposition Park. We'll send it back to you. You know, Mario, when you stand under the Endeavor, which you have, and you look up, just describe how that feels. Oh, it's amazing. You look up and you can't even believe how big it is. My body is like one of those engine propellers, and there's three of them. So that's what sends the Endeavor up into space. So it's just amazing to be that close to history and to think about all the miles that they've done out of orbit or in orbit. And it's amazing. I'm blown away. Yeah. It's one thing to see it on TV, but it's a whole different experience when you see it up close. Thank you so much. Appreciate you being here. Getting there.