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Summary The last few miles of Endeavours final journey are proving hard to get through.
In thousands of Earth orbits, the space shuttle Endeavour traveled 123 million miles.Endeavours 12-mile crawl across Los Angeles to the California Science Museum hit repeated delays Saturday, leaving expectant crowds along city streets and at the destination slowly dwindling. Officials estimated the shuttle, originally expected to finish the trip early Saturday evening, would not arrive until 6 a.m. PDT or later Sunday.At times on Saturday it seemed the only thing moving was the shuttles fast-changing ETA.The day started off promising, with Endeavour 90 minutes ahead of schedule. But accumulated hurdles and hiccups caused it to run hours behind at days end.The problems included longer than expected maintenance of the rig carrying the shuttle and physical obstacles within the shuttles wingspan, including light posts, building edges, and, most of all, trees.In a scene that repeated itself many times, a small tree on the narrowest section of the move brought the procession to a stop, forcing crews to find creative ways to dip a wing under or raise it over the tree without having to cut the tree down.Some 400 trees had been removed to avoid such situations, but officials said most of the trees that gave them trouble could not be cut down because they were old or treasured for other reasons, including some planted in honor of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.Still, the mood for most of the day was festive.At every turn of Endeavours stop-and-go commute through the working class streets of southern Los Angeles, a constellation of spectators trailed along as the space shuttle ploddingly nosed past stores, schools, churches and front yards.Thousands marveled at the engineering. Some rooted for Endeavour when it appeared it might clip a light post.This is great for the city as a whole. It makes us proud, said Dean Martinez, a project director for a nonprofit who began waiting before dawn to see the space shuttle.
