OV-105 Space Shuttle Endeavour

In 1987, Congress authorized NASA to use structural spare parts and let new contracts to build a replacement for Challenger. Space Shuttle Endeavour is that ship. She lives at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. And she's about to go into hiding!

The CSC is building a brand-new facility to permanently house OV-105, on display here in downtown LA since 2012 — only a few miles from where she was constructed in Palmdale. Right now, she sits on earthquake-mount pylons in a wheels-up configuration (Discovery, at D.C.'s Udvar-Hazy Center, sits atop her wheel struts, and low enough to prevent passing directly beneath), high enough to let you walk right under her belly and inspect tile damage from her final flight up close! And to shop for souvenirs directly under her nose. An interesting detail I noticed is that Atlantis (at KSC) and Discovery both appeared "dirty" to me. Not dusty like recently-uncleaned, but like "used." Which I guess is appropriate, since all of them ARE used. But Endeavour looks shiny. Polished. Ready to go again. And that's good, because at the end of 2023 America's fifth space-going shuttle will be moved to her new berth but then removed from public viewing for up to two more years while the building and exhibit space around her are completed. Different from Atlantis and Discovery, she'll be displayed vertically, as a full STS stack along with the last unflown external tank and a pair of SRBs. It will be amazing, and I will be back.

Apollo-Soyuz Test Project

After the Apollo moon landings were finished, a few circumstances came together: 1) There were still some Apollo flight-ready spacecraft available; 2) There were still a few capabilities to test, like the ability to mount a rescue in space; 3) Deke Slayton, one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts, was medically cleared to fly from the Afib that grounded him way back in 1962 before he ever got to space; and 4) The Soviets were willing to do a little showboating/show of cooperation dance, and so were we. CSM-111 was a "surplus" from the original Apollo program, and following the July 24, 1975 return from orbit — six years to the day after Apollo 11 did the same — the Apollo program truly ended.

The American ASTP command module capsule is owned by the Smithsonian, on "official" display with KSC, but currently on indefinite display at the California Science Center, also the home of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, the Gemini 11 capsule, and the Mercury-Redstone capsule that flew spacechimp Ham into space.