back to article Endeavour: donuts and a Toyota ease shuttle's drive through L.A.

If you're reading this right after we clicked The Reg's Publish button at 2:13pm Pacific Time on Friday, know that the Space Shuttle Endeavour is leaving its parking place near the corner of La Tijera Avenue and Sepulveda Eastway in Los Angeles, and continuing its journey to the California Science Center in that city's downtown …

COMMENTS

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  1. Radelix

    I work near there

    I am going to try to see it after work and snap some photos if I can

  2. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Unhappy

    Personally I would have rather they didn't cut down the trees.

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
      FAIL

      WTF?

      Why worry about 400 trees?

      Every launch was probably the equivalent of chopping down a few 1000 trees in terms of emissions.

      Those 400 tree are to be replaced by more than double that number. Do you really believe that those 400 trees will simply be destroyed? Of course not. At the very least they'll end up as wood chip, thus "saving" 400 other trees in some forest somewhere else.

      1. Will Godfrey Silver badge

        O reely?

        Silent Running

      2. GT66

        Re: WTF?

        The problem is the ugly azz streets those trees were hiding and the facts that for the next 20 years, all that will be there are a few sickly twigs trying to stay alive.

    2. The Stainless Steel Cat
      Boffin

      You mean the trees didn't hinge down out of the way? Truly US ingenuity's gone downhill since the '60s.

      (Brains, for obvious reasons)

      1. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

        Sjeez, that throws me back a few years, grin. Thanks :)

  3. Ryan 7
    FAIL

    Is Toyota now an American company, then?

    Hmmm?

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Holmes

      Re: Is Toyota now an American company, then?

      That model was manufactured in the US and the salesman could well have been American.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Is Toyota now an American company, then?

        The engine is made in the US. The transmission is made in the US. The truck is assembled in Texas.

        As close as you can get without being an American company.

    3. Bobthe2nd
      FAIL

      Re: Is Toyota now an American company, then?

      "You gotta love American ingenuity and salesmanship. "

      The article doesnt state that Toyota is an American company, you might want to look up the definition of ingenuity, ie. it doesnt mean you own anything, except imagination

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
        Trollface

        Re: Is Toyota now an American company, then?

        The UAW isn't too strong at Toyata. Maybe it's not an "American Company" in that sense?

        It also makes money.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Is Toyota now an American company, then?

          Right now so do GM, Ford and Chrylser (they're owned by Fiat but HQ and engineering is still in the USA).

          In any case Toyota's doing the towing because they asked. In fact, they asked to tow it a bit longer specifically so they could film a commercial. It just so happens they've donated meeellions to the California Science Center over the past 20 years.

          Toyota USA's headquarters is in Torrence, CA 13.5 miles from the California Science Center.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Is Toyota now an American company, then?

            Fiat is the italian governments company so American cars can all claim to be made by ferrari now eh?

            1. Dainase
              Facepalm

              Re: Is Toyota now an American company, then?

              Anon, FIAT is not owned by the Government. Not exactly sure how on earth you thought it was either.

        2. GT66

          Re: Is Toyota now an American company, then?

          And has a tailgate and seats that fold like tinfoil if there is any stress on them. Cheap junk in it's own right the description of being "Overbuilt" is lust a laugh and a half. I'm sure that a quarter mile was chosen as the distance because at a quarter mile and one inch the burning transmission falls out the bottom.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why not a Prius?

    I'm not impressed seeing another Toyota moving slowly down the road. The unstable suspension and dangerous brake dive causes drivers to think they're going as fast as technically possible while the long line of cars in the rear view mirror begs to differ.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    I for one...

    Welcome our new Chinese interplanetary overlords.

  6. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Dr. Hans Reinhardt, I presume?

    > It's definitely worth a few minutes of your panning, zooming attention.

    Holy damn, that looks a lot like a small version of the the Cygnus control room.

    It's actually sad that you cannot actually "go anywhere" with all that beauty because ... no Delta-V.

    "Punch it!"

    "I'm sorry, there is no lever for that!"

  7. dssf

    Salesmanship...

    "You gotta love American ingenuity and salesmanship. Or not. ®"

    Lol.... Around a week ago, a Korean told me "Americans can sell ANYthing!", hahaha

    Well, except, it seems, "Buy American" did not beat GM.

  8. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Pint

    Don't miss the link to the Discovery Flight deck

    As provided by El Reg:

    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/10/121012-space-shuttle-endeavour-los-angeles-international-airport-science/

    And buried in the text:

    http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/spaceflight-hd/gigapan-discovery-flight-deck/

    I don't know why its 'sciency' though. Clearly, it's engineering, and government-provided, cold-war era at that. It's as impressive as a good old greasy, dirty, temperamental and dangerous steam locomotive. Which is quite a lot.

  9. Jonathan Richards 1
    WTF?

    Keypad

    Get that freaky hexadecimal keypad on the centre (oh, alright then, center) console. It's laid out not like a numeric keypad but like a telephone dial pad, but then has hex digits A - F in the two rows *above* 0-9.

    A B C

    D E F

    1 2 3

    4 5 6

    7 8 9

    --0--

    Oh, well, I suppose none of the astronauts had to touch-type enter any object code in-flight. We hope...

    1. Gian

      Re: Keypad

      that's it!

      this is how they launched a handful of programs: ex code + EXEC KEY.

      I think all manuals are on NASA.com

      1970 tech, Apple ][ was still to come...

  10. Danny 4
    Boffin

    Lightweight Pickup?

    Error in original article? Isn't a half-ton pickup a little on the light side. Land Rovers are about 2 tons.

    Some googling reveals the 2012 Toyota Tundra CrewMax has a curb weight of 5,280 lbs which would be 2.36 tons here in Blighty or 2.64 tons to our septic cousins. Or in the newly established reader-voted Reg standardised SI units of 2 395 kg.

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      Re: Lightweight Pickup?

      > septic cousins

      Clearly the plague years are upon us.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Lightweight Pickup?

      Half ton refers to the payload capacity.

      But these days it is a marketing term only.

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Lightweight Pickup?

        Actually it's the total capacity of all the drinks holders filled with 80oz giant-super-slurpies

    3. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: Lightweight Pickup?

      "Half-ton" refers to the payload capacity. (which isn't much compared to its size)

  11. Unicornpiss
    Meh

    A sad end

    -Any pickup could move that thing as long as it has enough traction to get going. It disgusts me that Toyota is using this as a promotional event. I'd love to see Chevy, Dodge, Ford, etc. pull up with a rusted-out 1970s pickup and tow it a little further after Toyota is done, just to annoy them.

    -Hauling the shuttle through the streets like this puts me in mind of munchkins hauling a dead giant's body around to show it off.

    True, the shuttle is just an object, but it seems an undignified end for something this important to the furthering of humankind.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: A sad end

      Toyota sponsor the science centre

      Presumably Chevy, Dodge, Ford could also have sponsored a science museum but prefer to back monster truck rallies and NAscar rather than a bunch of poindexters who probably believe in evolution 'an all'

      1. GT66

        Re: A sad end

        Look at crash photos of the Tundras. Maybe the the (formerly) Big 3 are learning something at those truck rallies.

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

    3. The Alpha Klutz

      Re: A sad end

      the globalists are about to make driving illegal for the 90%. only their AI cars will be allowed to drive. Soon robots will be dragging your body from workplace to workplace and that's how the globalists want it. If you experience any happy emotions, the globalists will find a way to fix that too. In the globalists system the human spirit is replaced with the idea of biological androids fighting for the minority of resources not allocated directly to globalists. Meanwhile the globalists will drink caviar and whale semen and burn the fossil fuels that they naturally don't want you to have, and it won't warm the planet when they do it.

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