The Brief

Nearly six months after Endeavour reached for the stars one last time for its “Go For Stack” mission, the California Science Center is giving visitors a first look at what’s to come for the space shuttle’s new permanent home in Exposition Park.

You can catch a sneak peek of some of the artifacts and exhibits at the “Work in Progress” gallery while construction is expected to continue on the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center for about another year. Museum officials said crews are more than halfway done constructing the 200,000 square-foot building.

Jeffrey Rudolph, the president and CEO of the California Science Center, told LAist that the Electron rocket, the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft, and some of the other objects currently on display may also be moved into the new building sooner than later.

“We'll bring other things in so that this gallery, during the next months, will have a changing set of artifacts in it, and every time you come you might see different things,” Rudolph said.

“Mission 26: The Big Endeavour” series includes more than 80 photos of the space shuttle's final flight over California in the Work in Progress Gallery.

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Makenna Sievertson

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LAist

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Walking through the 'Work in Progress'

As you enter the gallery, you’re immediately met with a Dragon cargo spacecraft that helped carry people and supplies to and from the International Space Station.

It’s the first time this particular spacecraft, which was the first to reach orbit three times and has spent about 99 days in space, has ever been on display.

The back of the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft, charred by the reentry into earth's atmosphere from its missions to the International Space Station.

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Makenna Sievertson

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LAist

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Jessica Jensen, the vice president of customer operations and integration at SpaceX who leads their NASA and national security missions, told LAist that this Dragon was built in Hawthorne, and that’s one of the reasons the company wanted to donate it to the gallery.

“It's so cool for kids or families to be able to see, hey, you live in Los Angeles, you can come be a part of this,” she said. “Whether you're a designer, you're an analyst, you're a technician, you're a welder — we need all types of people to be able to make these programs successful, and it's right here, basically in our neighborhood.”

You can’t miss the nearly 60-foot-long Electron rocket that’s lying down near the ground towards the middle of the gallery space.

People can see a nearly 60-foot-long Electron rocket, designed by Rocket Lab in Long Beach, up close for the first time at the California Science Center.

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Makenna Sievertson

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LAist

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Donated by Rocket Lab, Electron is the world’s first and only reusable small-launch vehicle.

The rocket delivers satellites to Earth’s orbit, and with dozens of launches to date, it’s deployed 190 satellites for commercial, defense, and academic missions.

Its 3D-printed Rutherford engines were designed in Long Beach, and it’s the first time people have been able to see the piece up close and personal.

The walls are covered with distinct details about the future of the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, but the gallery also brings you back to 2012, when the Endeavour made its final flight over California.

The “Mission 26: The Big Endeavour” series includes more than 80 photos of the space shuttle’s 12-mile, nearly three-day journey from LAX to Exposition Park.

Alyson Goodall, senior vice president of the California Science Center, told LAist the entire city came out to welcome Endeavour, and it can be a little emotional reliving that journey through the more than 80 photos in the Work in Progress gallery.

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Makenna Sievertson

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LAist

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What’s next for the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center?

Construction for the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center is well underway, Rudolph said, but there are still some major obstacles ahead.

The Endeavour itself is now covered up by construction, but you can still see part of the twin solid rocket boosters and external tank peaking over the soon-to-be Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center in Exposition Park.

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Makenna Sievertson

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LAist

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“Getting the shuttle in was probably the most challenging part of the project, but the building construction itself, the part of the building that goes above and around the space shuttle, is a really complex structure,” he said.

That piece is called a diagrid, and the 200-foot-tall structure will eventually be self-supporting, so there’s no columns or walls obstructing your view of the Endeavour exhibit — but it can’t stand on its own until it's complete.

The California Science Center is also still about $35 million short of its $400 million funding goal, but Rudolph said there’s still plenty of space shuttle tiles available for people to sponsor.

“There's lots of things going on here, and in all of Exposition Park, this is going to be the go to place in L.A. without question,” Lynda Oschin, chairperson of the Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Oschin Family Foundation, told LAist.

Thousands of students from schools across Los Angeles walked out Wednesday in peaceful protest of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

The Los Angeles Unified School District estimated 4,400 students from about two dozen schools participated.

“ I think it's really empowering that we aren't being discouraged to [protest], but it's also really discouraging to have to live through this,” said Roybal Learning Center senior Melisa. 

“The reason I came out is 'cause we're so young and I feel like people always think that like young people don't have a voice and in reality we have one of the strongest voices,” said Jazlyn Garcia, a senior at  Alliance Gertz-Ressler High School. “I want people to go out and vote for midterms, pre-register to vote.”

Leonna, a senior at Downtown Magnets High School and daughter of immigrants from Cambodia, said she was thinking of her neighbors.  “We need to protect the people that make sure that the economy is running and make sure that our lives are the way that they are every day.”

Students said the Trump administration's immigration raids threaten their families, communities and education.

LAUSD estimated that several thousand students walked out.

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Sabrina Sanchez

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LAist

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Students said they were concerned for family and neighbors.

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Sabrina Sanchez

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LAist

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Alexis, a senior at Brío College Prep, said administrators locked down his campus after agents detained a nearby fruit vendor. “He was a part of our community,” Alexis said. “He would always be out there selling fruits to us after school.”

San Fernando Valley students at more than 40 schools plan to walk out Friday.

“Los Angeles Unified supports the rights of our students to advocate for causes important to them,” a district spokesperson wrote in a statement to LAist. “However, we are concerned for student safety at off-campus demonstrations as schools are the safest place for students.”

The district encouraged students to exercise their rights in on-campus discussions and demonstrations.

The University of Southern California board of trustees has appointed interim president Beong-Soo Kim to be its 13th full president.

Kim was named as the interim leader in February 2025 and began the role this summer. He most recently served as USC’s senior vice president and general counsel, and as a lecturer at the law school. Prior to joining USC, he worked at Kaiser Permanente and was a federal prosecutor for the Central District of California.

Kim succeeds Carol Folt, who was brought on to stabilize the university following a series of scandals under the administration before hers. She formally stepped down from her role in July, following criticism of her ability to handle student protests and concerns over fiscal stewardship.

Soon after his term began, Kim oversaw the university’s effort to manage a $200 million deficit, which also led to hundreds of layoffs.

“We did have to make some difficult decisions last year with respect to our budget and layoffs,” Kim told LAist. “And I'm really pleased that as a result of those difficult decisions, we're now in a much stronger financial position and really for a number of months have been really focusing on the opportunities that we see on the horizon.”

In a call with LAist, and joined by USC board chair Suzanne Nora Johnson, Kim touched on bright spots and some of his priorities. He also touched on the relationship between USC and the Trump administration before a sudden ending to the call.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

LAist: You've talked about addressing the mass layoffs and budget challenges. What do you see as the way forward?

Beong-Soo Kim: Our research expenditures have actually been going up over the last year, over the last couple of years. We're focusing on: How do we provide the best possible educational value to our students? We're focusing on how to maintain and strengthen our academic culture of excellence, open dialogue and engagement with different viewpoints.

And we're also really kind of leaning into artificial intelligence and asking questions as a community about how we incorporate AI responsibly into our education, into our operations, into our research. And there are obviously a lot of important ethical questions that we're working on, and it's really an quite an exciting time to be in the position that I'm in.

What are you excited for?

Well, a couple things that we're really looking forward to are, as part of the anniversary of the United States, we're going to be hosting a National Archives exhibition [of] founding documents in late April. We're also looking forward to helping host the L.A. Olympics in 2028. We have our 150th anniversary coming up in 2030 as a university.

So there's a lot that's on the horizon. We also have the Lucas Museum opening up across the street later this year and, of course, George Lucas is one of our most beloved Trojan alumni. So there's so much vitality, so much energy on the campus right now.

USC has, for the most part, avoided the sort of conflicts that the University of California system and elite private institutions across the country have had with the Trump administration. What can you share about how you plan to manage USC’s relationship with the federal government?

Well, we really make an effort to engage with all levels of government, as well as foundations, the private sector, community groups. That kind of engagement is really more important nowadays. Universities can't just go off on their own. It's important for us to partner and find opportunities to work with others. And that's what we've been doing.

And that's part of the reason why I think that our research has continued to go strongly. And I give a lot of the credit to our faculty and researchers who can continue submitting grant applications and continue to do research in areas that are critically important to the benefit of our community, our nation, and our world. And I think that we -—

Suzanne Nora Johnson: —Actually I'm so sorry, but we have to complete the board meeting, and we've got to run. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. We'll be in touch. Bye. Thanks. Bye.

Huntington Beach will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision striking down the city’s controversial voter ID law.

What’s the backstory?

Huntington Beach voters approved a measure in 2024 allowing the city to require people to show ID when casting a ballot. That contradicts state law — voters in California are asked to provide ID when they register to vote but generally not at polling places.

The ensuing court battle

The state and a Huntington Beach resident promptly sued the city over the voter ID law and won an appeals court ruling striking down the law. The California Supreme Court declined to review the decision earlier this month. The state also passed a law prohibiting cities from implementing their own voter ID laws.

Then, the City Council voted unanimously this week to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in.

Does the city have a shot?

The Supreme Court gets 7,000 to 8,000 requests to review cases each year. The Court grants about 80 of these requests, so the city’s chances of getting the court’s attention are statistically slim.

There’s also a question of whether or not the city’s voter ID case meets the Court’s criteria for review — SCOTUS addresses questions of federal law. Mayor Casey McKeon said it does, in a news release, noting a 2008 Supreme Court decision that upheld a state’s voter ID law — in Indiana. But Huntington Beach is a city, and the question in its voter ID case is whether or not a city can implement its own requirements for voting, even if it clashes with state law.

Go deeper

• Huntington Beach's controversial voter ID law is illegal
• Huntington Beach clashes with California over voter ID requirement in court
• HB Mayor defends Voter ID measure as Gov. Newsom seeks to ban it
• Listen 26:32

  The Trump Administration wants your confidential voter data. What’s behind their battle with CA and other states?