Friday, October 3, 2014

Let's get the straightforward stuff out of the way. Here's little sample of news/promotional writing. I love space.


Space Shuttle Endeavour Touches Down
By Brad Cheng


It was the end to journeys that eclipsed more than a hundred million miles in space.
It was a monumental undertaking on the terra firma of Earth.

When the Space Shuttle Endeavour made its dramatic arrival through the streets of Los Angeles to the California Science Center, it brought to a close the voyages of the last of NASA's orbital fleet. Over a nearly a decade, the Space Shuttle Endeavour navigated the vastness of space and fragile shell of our atmosphere on missions that illuminated both mankind's quest for knowledge and the measure of its heroics.

The Endeavour is one of the four remaining ships from the NASA space shuttle program which launched it's first orbiter in 1981. During Endeavour's career, the ship traveled more than 122 million miles in space, circling the planet 4,671 times as it crossed through the cosmic divides of night and day.

While the Endeavour once thundered from the launch pad at 24,000 mph to escape the grip of gravity, its trip to the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center was made at a leisurely 2-miles per hour, taking a full day to arrive 12 miles from Los Angeles International Airport. Despite this less-than-thrilling velocity, the sight was still breathtaking for the hundreds of thousands who turned out to watch it arrive at its permanent home of exhibition. The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center is honored to be the recipient of this magnificent gift from NASA.

On each of its twenty-five missions, the space shuttle carried a history of exploration spanning hundreds of years, by name and by tradition.  The Endeavour was christened after the HMS Endeavour, the full-rigged sailing ship captained by British Lt. James Cook in the 18th Century, who was sent forth by the Royal Navy on a scientific exploration of the South Pacific.

Just as Space Shuttle Endeavor's missions aided our understanding of the cosmos, chief among the HMS Endeavour's missions was an attempt to pinpoint our place in the universe. Cook sailed the HMS Endeavor to Tahiti to observe the 1769 transit of Venus across the Sun. The scientists of Britain's Royal Society hoped that Cook's record of the celestial event would provide astronomers the data needed to accurately calculate our native star's distance from Earth.

A complex $10-million engineering task was required to transport the Space Shuttle Endeavour and its 24-wheeled transport platform through the streets of Los Angeles. More than 1,200 police officers and firefighters were required to maneuver the shuttle through the city, sometimes guiding its 150-foot wingspan through obstacles with less than a credit card's width to spare. With a combined weight of more than 150 tons, hundreds of steel plates were laid along the route to keep the transport and its precious payload from collapsing streets. But with a precision calculations worthy of NASA, the Endeavour was at last safely brought home.

As the centerpiece of Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, we hope your trip to see the Endeavour will help you appreciate its place in history of space flight and as a symbol of mankind's never-ending quest for knowledge. The Endeavour's last journey may not have finally taken it to the stars, but to a place where it will be shine as one on display for generations to enjoy.

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