Here's all three.
Endeavour @ Sepulveda Way pt1/3
Endeavour @ Sepulveda Way pt2/3
Endeavour @ Sepulveda Way pt3/3
I stayed at the hangar post for about 1/2 hour. After that, I moved to the first spot I found on the far side of LAX and was there at about 11:45pm. After 15 mins or so, the cops started chasing people away. At that point, I was ready to go home and try later on Friday. As I drove down the street, several side roads were blocked off. I considered driving around the cones and tape, but kept going. Finally, I came across a side street with a huge parking lot next to it. I could see a few people and tents set up at the far end, so figured what the heck, may as well check it out.
Parking, I mulled around for a few before talking with a few people. I found out the shuttle would directly drive by our spot around 2am. It was 1230 by that point, so thought 'why not?'.
Only a dozen people were there at the time and that stayed constant until the shuttle didn't arrive at 2am, which is when the crowd slowly started to pick up. By 415am when it peaked its nose around the far corner of the road, the crowd had picked up to dozens and likely topped one hundred on our side and perhaps similar on the far side of the street.
I was glad I staked out mys pace when I did, but a major mistake was not having a jacket. It wasn't cold at midnight, but by 3am, I was shaking with chattering teeth. As Endeavour rounded the corner to sit in front of us, I ran out of memory! I furiously began dumping shots from earlier in the night, hoping I didn't delete anything nice (I lost a couple hangar shots in the flurry).
By 530am, it had passed us and was sitting at the street corner a hundred feet away. It would cross that intersection an hour later and remain in a parking lot for the next 6hrs while tech crews raised the power lines so it could sneak under them. The rest of the trip is history.
I wanted to try and snipe the shuttle from a few other points along the 12 mile route, but it didn't work out. I am quite glad I got to see it when and where I did. I spent Friday in bed with post-exposure chills and mild fever. It was worth it.
While it was in our presence for more than an hour while they cut down an extra tree or two, and sat directly in front of me for a half hour, this is every moment of footage I have. The thing is huge. It rolled down the center of 4 or 5 lanes of road and the wingtips still went over the sidewalk in front of me, not 10 feet out and 10 feet up was the closest I got to it. I don't think anyone (general public) else did, or now will ever, get that close again.
