Hearkening back to the golden days of Downey’s role in the NASA space program and aerospace history, the community started moving a full-size original space shuttle design prototype across town — readying it for public display in the years to come.
Downey community members and people from surrounding cities lined up along Bellflower Boulevard on Thursday morning, Oct. 17, to witness the historic move of the space shuttle mock up that inspired the nation’s mission to soar to space and return home again.
“This shuttle has been here as a part of Downey’s legacy and history for 52 years, ever since it was built, and it’s an honor to be able to bring it out again on public view and to be able to restore it and have a permanent home for it still in its hometown,” said Benjamin Dickow, president and executive director of the Columbia Memorial Space Center.
On Thursday, Columbia Memorial Space Center officials began the two-day process of moving the massive model — built in 1972 as part of Rockwell International’s ultimately successful bid to build NASA’s shuttles — from a storage building, 12324 Bellflower Blvd., to a renovation facility just up the road, which will prepare it to be displayed in a new exhibit hall.
The prototype — named “Inspiration” — started the move dismantled, with the primary components, such as the crew cabin and rocket thruster, to be transported Thursday morning in full view for observers along the route.
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Additional parts will be moved Friday, but will be covered during transport.
A similar project has been underway for more than a year in Los Angeles, where a future exhibit hall is under construction that will house the upright, launch-ready display of the space shuttle Endeavour at the California Science Center.
Downey, which for years billed itself as the birthplace of the Apollo space program and other NASA achievements, was home to North American Rockwell, which became Rockwell International. The aerospace giant was the construction site for the Apollo program’s space capsules and NASA’s space shuttle fleet.
The company evolved from Vultee Aircraft, which produced military aircraft during World War II. The various incarnations were Downey’s largest employers for decades.
Rockwell closed in 1999. The sprawling site on which it operated is now home to the Columbia Memorial Space Center museum, a Kaiser Permanent Medical Center, and the Downey Landing and Promenade at Downey shopping centers. Echoes of the space programs, however, appear all over the current buildings.
After the aerospace center closed, some of its massive buildings comprised the 78-acre Downey Studios, where such films as “Spider-Man,” “Iron Man,” “Cloverfield,” “Van Helsing” and “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events” were made. A full-size neighborhood of suburban-home facades stood there for years, created initially for “Christmas with the Kranks.”
City News Service contributed to this report
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