The Last Ferry Flight: How Three NASA Photographers Choreographed Endeavour's Farewell Over California

NASA's photo team recounts the planning, the chase planes, and the helicopter recon behind the iconic 2012 images of Endeavour atop its 747.

On September 21, 2012, space shuttle Endeavour rode a modified 747 over California for the last time, tracing a low-altitude route past the Golden Gate Bridge, Dodger Stadium, the Hollywood sign, Disneyland, and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Millions watched from the ground. Three people from NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center — lead videographer Lori Losey, lead photographer Jim Ross, and photographer Carla Thomas — were responsible for the images the world would remember. The logistics were more film production than photo shoot. Losey pushed for two chase aircraft over the LA area so photo and video wouldn't fight for position. The result was what she calls "a beautiful dance of alternating altitudes and swapping positions between landmarks." Ross and Thomas flew in the back seats of F/A-18s and an F-15 from Armstrong's fleet, while the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft lumbered below them with 75 tons of orbiter on its back. Thomas's contribution was the unglamorous part that made the glamour possible: pre-flight reconnaissance. She flew the entire route with the LAPD in one of their helicopters, scouting for obstacles. The Hollywood sign was the hardest shot — it sits on a hillside laced with power lines and radio antennas. The team had to plan around physical hazards that don't appear in the postcard version of that landmark. Coordination stretched across institutions. The California Science Center, the FAA, LAX, and NASA's Johnson Space Center all had to sign off. This wasn't a spontaneous victory lap — it was a tightly choreographed multi-agency operation with narrow margins for error and no second take. The flight path itself was deliberately generous. Sacramento's state capitol, NASA Ames in Silicon Valley, JPL in Pasadena, the Santa Monica Pier — each flyover was a gift to a different community that had some stake in the shuttle program. Ross's favorite memory was the visible enthusiasm of the crowds: "People in the Los Angeles area really came out." Thomas recalled the standing-room-only crowd below the Sacramento capitol with pride, reflecting on her own career arc — she had joined NASA in the wake of the Challenger disaster. Endeavour completed 25 missions, including delivering the first components of the International Space Station to orbit. Now the orbiter is about to be displayed upright in launch position inside the new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center at the California Science Center in Downtown Los Angeles, reopening the weekend of November 13. The images from that September day endure because the planning was obsessive and the team understood the assignment: you get one pass over the Golden Gate Bridge with a shuttle on a 747. There is no reshoot. The work behind the lens was as precisely engineered as the vehicle in front of it.