In 1987 the United States congress authorized construction of the Endeavour Space Shuttle (the fifth shuttle orbiter) to replace the Challenger. The Challenger was lost in the STS-51-L launch accident in 1986. Endeavour’s final launch was in Florida, as they headed to California for display. On the way, while being piggyback on atop a modified Boeing 747 jumbo jet, the Endeavour took a stop in Houston, Texas at Ellington Field for public view. While being in Houston, Endeavour had also said goodbye to all its lovely companions/astronauts. The shuttle is now retired, due to the ending of NASA’s 30-year shuttle program in July 2011.

       The Endeavour Shuttle was built from spares, because they did not want to refit the Enterprise or accept a Rockwell International proposal to build two shuttles for the price of one. The shuttle is 75 tons and stretches 122 feet in length, measures 78 feet from wingtip to wingtip and is more than 5 stories tall standing straight up.  This shuttle got its name from the British HMS Endeavour (1764), which is the ship that took Captain James Cook on his first voyage of discovery. The name also honored Endeavour, the command Module of Apollo 15, which was also named after Cook’s ship. Being delivered by Rockwell International Space Transportation Systems Division in May 1991, Endeavour first launched a year later on STS-49. Despite construction costing US$2.2 billion, Rockwell International had made no profit on Endeavour.

        In 1992, Endeavour’s first launch, the shuttle captured and redeployed the stranded INTELSAT VI communications satellite. This launch lasted nine days from May 7^th to May 16^th. Months after the first launch, the first female African-American astronaut, Mae Jemison, was brought into space on the STS-47 mission. Before she became an astronaut she was working for Kennedy Space Center in Florida doing launch support activities in 1987. Mrs. Jemison left NASA in March 1993.

      A year later in 1993, the Endeavour made its first mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Endeavour was taken from service for eight months in 1997, for a retrofit and new airlock installation. In December of 1998, the shuttle delivered the Unity Module to the Zarya module of the International Space Station. Endeavour flew its last mission, STS-134, to the International Space Station in May 2011, but the last mission of all what when Atlantis rolled to its home port, NASA Kennedy Space Center in July 2011.

      Starting December of 2003, Endeavour had its last Orbiter Major Modification period that did not end until October 6, 2005. The Endeavour has spent 20 years, going on missions and orbits for NASA. On July 31, 1987 Endeavour won its first contract award. It has traveled a total distance of 122,833,151 miles, spent 296 days in space, deployed three satellites, and went on twenty-five missions. For its fairly large size, this shuttle carried 154 crewmembers.

      The Endeavour had its last flight on September 19, 2012 that lasted three days, while it traveled to Los Angeles, California to be displayed in the Samuel Oschin Space Shuttle Endeavour Display Pavilion, opening October 30, 2012. Its twenty years of hard work have paid off with its 4, 617 orbits, and is now a retired orbiter of the NASA Space Shuttle Program. As of the 21^st of September, the shuttle is in permanent display in California, along with the Discovery, Enterprise, and Atlantis. After the Discovery was retired, only Atlantis had been left for removal from the shuttle program.  Soon after Atlantis had been shut down is when the NASA’s longest running space-flight program came to an end. Obama quotes “Today's launch may mark the final flight of the Space Shuttle, but it propels us into the next era of our never-ending adventure to push the very frontiers of exploration and discovery in space,” as he hopes to bring big plans to the next program in the near future.