Endeavouring to keep cool

On the way to my conference/holiday in New Zealand, I stopped off for a day in Los Angeles, to meet up with a colleague.  We spent the morning talking about emergence and entropy, then had the afternoon free.  I vetoed the suggested trip to the beach: the temperature was in the mid 30s.  Instead, we went to see the shuttle.

Endeavour is currently on display in a shed not much bigger than itself plus some merchandising racks, which makes it hard to get good photos.  But you can get up very close. What this brought home to me is just how small the shuttle is; yet this thing went into space, multiple times.

I was also amused at overhearing other tourists gasping “Isn’t it big!”.  They’ve clearly forgotten how big a real space ship is.  After all, the shuttle is smaller than a 747.

a 747, for comparison

It’s name has the English spelling, rather than the American spelling, since it’s named after Captain Cook’s ship the HMS Endeavour.