Shuttle Endeavour lands in Los Angeles

Space shuttle Endeavour tours Southern California and arrives in Los Angeles on its final journey before taking up residence at the California Science Center.

Riding piggyback on a modified Boeing 747, the 75-ton winged spaceship departed at 8:17 a.m. (1517 GMT) on the final leg of its cross-country trip that began on Wednesday in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The departure was delayed by about an hour due to early-morning fog over the San Francisco Bay area.

The Boeing 747 with the shuttle took off into clear blue skies and circled back for a flyover over Edwards as spectators snapped pictures of Endeavour aloft one last time.

After making low-altitude passes over some of California's best-known landmarks, including Disneyland, the Hollywood sign and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Endeavour and its carrier jet landed at Los Angeles International Airport.

Friday's flight from Edwards, about 100 miles (160 km) north of Los Angeles in the Mojave Desert, marked Endeavour's last ferry flight, and the final airborne journey for any of NASA's three surviving shuttles.