The retired Endeavor shuttle arrived in the City of Angels last month atop a NASA Boeing 747 , taking a grand tour of Southern California before setting down at the international airport. Now, it has to be towed through the streets of Los Angeles to get to its permanent home at the California Science Center south of downtown. That’s where Toyota comes in.
Toyota, with its U.S. headquarters nearby in Torrance, Calif., has contributed more than $8 million to the science center since the early 1990s. With that in mind, when they were looking for a way to move the Endeavor to the Science Center, it made sense to approach Toyota with the task. The retired space shuttle Endeavor has been moved by many things, such as rockets, its own engines and thrusters, tank-like transporters, and now…a Toyota Tundra pickup truck! Toyota Motor Sales announced this past Wednesday that the full-size Tundra will tow the Endeavor the last quarter mile to the California Science Center, where both the space shuttle and truck are to be displayed.
Tested extensively prior to the announcement, the 2012 Tundra is slated to safely tow the 300,000 pound historic artifact down Bill Robertson Lane in Exposition Park, near downtown Los Angeles, on the final leg of its journey. Endeavour will be towed using a stock 2012 Tundra CrewMax 1/2–ton pickup, identical to models currently found in Toyota dealerships, with no additional modifications made to increase towing capacity or generate more power. The Tundra CrewMax is equipped with Toyota’s powerful 5.7L V8 engine, producing a maximum tow capacity of 10,000 pounds. TMS has done extensive testing and worked with The Sarens Group, a heavy lifting and engineered transport company, to develop a dolly specifically for hauling the Endeavour. The mission, check out this video!
So…SAVE the Date – Saturday, October 13! By the way, Social media users are encouraged to share their Endeavour sightings using the hashtags #spottheshuttle and #OV105, Endeavour’s orbiter vehicle designation. Better yet, tweet this phrase and share in Toyota’s quest to raise money for Endeavor’s new home at the California Science Center: For every tweet (#TundraEndeavor) sent using the “Share with Twitter” button on this page, Toyota will donate $50 to the California Science Center.
Check out more information regarding Endeavour’s permanent home, a new addition to the Science Center called the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center. Please visit this post after the event and post your comments and thoughts regarding joint effort by Toyota. Better yet, how about posting to our Facebook page? We would LOVE to know what you think!
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P.S. By the way, check out our current inventory of the 2012 Toyota Tundra CrewMax!
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