Space Shuttle Endeavour mounted on NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, passes over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Friday, Sept. 21, 2012. Endeavour is making a final trek across the country to the California Science Center in Los Angeles, where it will be permanently displayed. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Space Shuttle Endeavour mounted on NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, passes over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Friday, Sept. 21, 2012. Endeavour is making a final trek across the country to the California Science Center in Los Angeles, where it will be permanently displayed. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Space Shuttle Endeavour, mounted on NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), flies near parasailers in Santa Monica, Calif., Friday, Sept. 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
The Space Shuttle Endeavour atop a modified 747 passes the Hollywood Sign and the Griffith Observatory as seen from Dodger Stadium, Friday, Sept. 21, 2012, in Los Angeles. Endeavour will be permanently displayed at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Spectators take pictures as the Space Shuttle Endeavour mounted on NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) flies near Santa Monica, Calif., Friday, Sept. 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A crewmember waves the U.S. flag as the Space Shuttle Endeavour taxis to an airline maintenance hangar aboard a NASA Boeing 747, at the conclusion of its last flight at Los Angeles International Airport, Friday, Sept. 21, 2012. In a few weeks Endeavour will be towed through city streets to its new home at the California Science Center in downtown Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
Rather than roaring to space on an elevator of flame, the shuttle Endeavour's final flight Friday was a leisurely, low-altitude journey past the iconic Golden Gate Bridge and Hollywood sign as well as other California landmarks.
The workhorse rode piggyback atop a Boeing 747 to its home state and ultimately landed at Los Angeles International Airport.
NASA's shuttle fleet, which retired last year after three decades of flight, was assembled in Palmdale, Calif., near Edwards Air Force Base. The military outpost 100 miles north of Los Angeles served as the original shuttle landing strip and remained a backup site in case of stormy weather at Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Endeavour's final airborne journey started with takeoff from Edwards and a northern heading to swoop low over Sacramento before flying by San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz prison.
The flight then turned south for a fly-by at West Coast space port Vandenberg Air Force Base. Other sites where people gathered to gawk ? and shoot photos and video ? included Malibu, Santa Monica, the Getty Center, Griffith Observatory, downtown Los Angeles and the Queen Mary, a transportation relic enshrined in Long Beach.
Endeavour later will be hauled 12 miles on city streets to its home at the California Science Center.
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