The Brief

This Sunday, Dec. 31, is your last chance to see the space shuttle Endeavour at the California Science Center before it’s taken off public display indefinitely, while the museum finishes building its new permanent home at the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center in Exposition Park.

Once construction is complete in the next few years, the Endeavour will be displayed in its “ready to launch” position in what will be the world’s only authentic space shuttle stack.

"Go For Stack"

The California Science Center is recreating the Endeavour’s vertical launch position, including all of the equipment that took the orbiter from the surface of the Earth into space on 25 missions.

This has never been done outside of NASA before, according to Ken Phillips, the curator of aerospace science who develops all of the museum's programs and exhibits on space exploration.

“We're basically putting together a giant spaceship, just like NASA did, but not with any of their resources,” he said.

The California Science Center calls this Mission 26: The Big Endeavour.

The Endeavour is quite heavy, about 176,000 pounds, and Phillips said the assembly is unforgiving.

The museum installed the solid rocket booster aft skirts, the first major milestone, in July. These form the base of the solid rocket boosters.

Next, the museum stacked a pair of 116 foot high solid rocket motors directly above those aft skirts.

Earlier this month, crews finished assembling the twin solid rocket boosters. These 52 ton parts were secured to the base of the rockets inside the soon-to-be Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center.

The twin solid rocket boosters surrounded by construction for the soon-to-be Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center on Thursday, Dec. 28.

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Makenna Sievertson for LAist

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Phillips said each piece has to be assembled precisely, down to one-tenth of an inch, or else the Endeavour will end up looking like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Plus, some of the certified flight hardware they need is no longer being used by NASA, so getting those components was challenging.

Jeff Rudolph, the president and CEO of the California Science Center, told LAist each step has been more exciting than the last, and people can start to get a sense of the scale of this project now.

What’s next for the Endeavour?

In early January, crews will move the large orange external tank known as “ET-94” to the east end of the California Science Center and bolt it to the solid rocket motors in the new building.

This piece provided all the propellants for the main engines in the space shuttle, Rudolph said, and is the only flight-ready external tank left in the world.

“Then toward the end of the month, after a great deal of Hail Marys and prayers and whatever you believe, we’re going to take the space shuttle Endeavour and we’re going to very slowly back it out,” Phillips said.

Crews will remove the back wall of the Samuel Oschin Pavilion, where the Endeavour is currently temporarily displayed, and move the space shuttle east to its new location. However, it won’t be paraded through the streets of L.A. this time, it will stay on museum property.

Once it's in place, the Endeavour will be lifted about 350 feet into the air and settled down gently into position in its new, permanent home. It will then be bolted into that external tank, which will complete the rest of the space shuttle stack.

“After that, it will be protected while we build the rest of our new building, the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, above and around it,” Rudolph said. “And then in a few years, we'll open it up to the public and make the whole experience available to everyone.”

The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center will double the amount of exhibit space at the California Science Center and feature more than 100 authentic artifacts.

Ken Phillips, the curator of aerospace science at the California Science Center, talks about his vision for the new Endeavour's new home on Thursday, Dec 28.

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Makenna Sievertson for LAist

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Phillips is also responsible for orchestrating the vision of this new addition, which he describes as an invitation to “get in the game.”

He said the exhibits will go over the exploration of the universe — from the rocketships humans ride, to the robots we send to the edge of the solar system, and the telescopes we use to study the stars and galaxies beyond our reach.

There will also be interactive exhibits around NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and an opportunity to go inside a 747 airplane on a simulated flight from L.A. to Korea.

“It's an opportunity for people to get in the game of thinking about how you make all of this stuff possible,” Phillips said. “Where do you get the ideas to create something that lets you see something that's otherwise invisible? Or go to a place that you can't visit yourself?”

Ultimately, as curator, Phillips hopes the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center will be a gift to the city that inspires the next generation of engineers, astronauts, and explorers.

But, the California Science Center needs to secure the rest of the funding first.

They’re about $50 million short of their $400 million goal, and Rudolph said every gift makes a difference at this point.

If you want to help support the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, you can sponsor a tile on the Endeavour starting at $1,000, which can be paid in 10 monthly installments.

Some of the thermal protection tiles that people can sponsor to support the California Science Center and its projects.

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Makenna Sievertson for LAist

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“The space shuttle has thousands of thermal protection tiles that protected it when it came back through the earth's atmosphere on re-entry,” Rudolph said. “They’re all unique, and we thought it would be nice to let people associate their name with one.”

You can learn more about that program here.

How did the Endeavour end up at the California Science Center in the first place?

Phillips said he’s been imagining this project for more than 33 years — even before he was with the California Science Center and the Endeavour's maiden mission in 1992.

That was a crazy thing to do, he said, but Phillips figured if the museum could get one of the space shuttles, they would have an opportunity to really explain in detail how it works.

While the Endeavour is an extraordinarily complicated vehicle, Phillips noted that it’s only because people combined their individual talents for this project.

A few families visiting the space shuttle Endeavour on Thursday, Dec. 28, before it's taken off public display indefinitely.

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Makenna Sievertson for LAist

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“If you can demystify that, then people are not so afraid of it and they can say, well, maybe I can do this,” he said. “If I have an interest in this sort of stuff, I can build rocket ships. Maybe I can become an astronaut if I choose. So it's not just about preserving history, it's about inspiring the next generation for the future.”

Phillips credited Rudolph for supporting the idea, because “any sane person would probably have bet against this project.”

Once the California Science Center came up with a vision for the Endeavour, they had to convince NASA they could actually pull it off.

“We were not at all favored to win this,” Phillips noted. “I mean, people were telling me that we were out of the running even before the things were submitted.”

But one fateful morning in 2011, he got a call from a NASA administrator in Florida awarding the California Science Center the space shuttle Endeavour.

Phillips said he sat there, speechless. For three whole minutes, he was the only person to know Los Angeles was about to be this national asset’s new home.

“I think the bottom line is that all of this really is about inspiring people, and we'll do that in any way we can,” he said.

Lines stretched around the block Sunday at the Original Saugus Cafe in Santa Clarita. It was supposed to be the restaurant's last day before closing after 139 years — making it the oldest continually operated restaurant in Los Angeles County.

But earlier this week, a sign was posted on the door saying, "Reopening under new ownership soon," although there were few details about who would be running it.

The sign was a surprise to the Mercado family, who have operated the restaurant for nearly 30 years. The family now is in a legal dispute with the Arklin family, who owns the property, about the potential re-opening and who owns the historic name.

The background

Alfredo Mercado worked his way up from bartender to restaurateur, purchasing the business in 1998. Since then Mercado and his daughters have operated the restaurant, leasing from the Arklin family. For most of that time, according to the Mercado side, the two families maintained good terms. Property owner Hank Arklin Sr., a former state assemblyman who owned other properties in the area, kept a verbal month-to-month agreement with the Mercados — no written lease required.

That changed when Arklin died in August at age 97.

New terms, failed negotiations

Larry Goodman, who manages multiple properties for the Arklin family's company, North Valley Construction, took over the landlord relationship. In September, the Mercado family say they were presented with a new written month-to-month lease.

Yecenia Ponce, Alfredo's daughter, said the new terms included various changes to the existing agreement, including a rent increase and charges for equipment.

Months of back and forth negotiations about different options, including selling the business, ultimately fell apart. Their attorney, Steffanie Stelnick, says they are being forced out, without proper legal notice, and has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Goodman saying the family has plans to continue running the business.

LAist reached out to Goodman for comment repeatedly Wednesday and Thursday by phone but did not hear back.

Goodman told The Signal, a Santa Clarita valley news outlet, that Alfredo Mercado had changed his mind several times in recent weeks about keeping the business.

“I said, ‘Fine,’ then I got out and got someone to take it over,” Goodman said.

He said he'd been in contact with Eduardo Reyna, the CEO of Dario's, a local Santa Clarita restaurant, and that the cafe could re-open as soon as Jan. 16.

Who owns what?

The dispute also focuses on who owns the rights to the Original Saugus Cafe name.

Ponce said when her father purchased the restaurant in 1998, it was called The Olde Saugus Cafe, but the name was then changed to The Original Saugus Cafe. State records show that name registered as an LLC under Alfredo Mercado.

After Arklin’s death, however, the Arklin family filed a pending trademark application to lay its own claim to the name.

The Mercado family is resisting.

"As long as they don't buy the name from us, we're not handing it over," Ponce said.

Ponce said the family had no idea the landlord planned to continue operations.

"We truly did think we were closing," she said. "We were not aware that they had plans to continue."

She apologized to customers for the confusion.

Whether the decades-old restaurant name survives — and under whose control — may ultimately be decided in court.

Community leaders and politicians in Los Angeles are responding in outrage after an ICE agent shot and killed a woman in Minnesota on Wednesday.

The fatal ICE shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good has sparked anger and fear in Los Angeles, which has been an epicenter of federal immigration enforcement since the summer.

Jorge-Mario Cabrera with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA, says the killing was upsetting but not surprising.

" Los Angeles has been witness of the escalating aggressiveness of these federal agents against the community," he told LAist.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has defended the shooting, saying Good was trying to run agents over with her car. That account has been disputed by eyewitnesses, the mayor of Minneapolis and other officials. Bystander video also challenges the federal narrative, according to MPR News.

L.A. politicians have joined a chorus demanding justice for Good. Mayor Karen Bass posted on X, saying that ICE agents are waging "a purposeful campaign of fear and intimidation" on American cities.

"The senseless killing of an innocent and unarmed wife and mother by ICE agents today in Minneapolis is shocking and tragic and should never have occurred," she said in the post.

L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn called on Noem to withdraw ICE from U.S. cities.

“These ICE agents are undertrained and trigger happy and everyone who has seen this video knows ICE murdered this woman,” she said in a statement.

Some protesters also gathered outside the federal building in downtown L.A. Thursday morning to condemn the killing.