Explore Endeavour with an astronaut who knows its secrets (including how to store tortillas in space)

A brand-new museum center in Los Angeles is giving visitors something truly special: a chance to see a real space shuttle up close. The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center opens on November 13 at the California Science Center. It will be the only place in the world where you can see a complete space shuttle system — including an orbiter that actually flew in space. Astronaut Danny Olivas recently gave a tour and shared what it was like to work with these machines.

The star of the exhibit is the space shuttle Endeavour. Olivas never flew on Endeavour, but he spent almost 28 days in space on two other shuttle missions — Atlantis and Discovery. He also did more than 34 hours of spacewalks outside the spacecraft. Because he studied Endeavour closely for years, he knows it better than many who flew on it.

When you look inside Endeavour's open hatch, you can spot some surprising details. There's a ladder going sideways from the mid-deck to the flight deck, because the shuttle stands in its launch position. Small patches of blue Velcro on the walls let astronauts attach pens and notes so they wouldn't float away. Even simple everyday items had to be carefully designed for life in zero gravity.

Olivas remembers that crews would stash tortillas near the blue Velcro, close to a cold plate that kept the electronics cool. Tortillas stored there stayed fresh longer — and there was no refrigerator on the shuttle. Tortillas have been part of spaceflight since 1985, when Mexican astronaut Rodolfo Neri Vela brought them on a mission. They were a smart choice because, unlike bread, they don't leave floating crumbs that could damage equipment.

The full display at the museum includes more than just the crew cabin. The 'shuttle stack' features the orbiter, two solid rocket boosters, and a large orange fuel tank — set up almost exactly as it would look before launch. This tank, called ET-94, is the last one ever built that was ready to fly. When full, it held more than 1.6 million pounds of super-cold fuel.

Olivas says the shuttle program was important because it brought more diversity to the astronaut corps. 'Because the space shuttle program came forth, we started seeing people: the first female astronaut, the first African American astronaut, first African American female astronaut, the first Hispanic astronaut,' he said. He also pointed out that all the shuttles were built in Southern California. 'This is the heart of the aerospace industry,' he added.

Endeavour took an unforgettable journey to reach its home in Los Angeles. In 2012, the orbiter rode on top of a Boeing 747 jet, flying past the Hollywood Sign and Griffith Observatory before landing at LAX. The massive orange fuel tank arrived in 2016, sailing through the Panama Canal on a tugboat. Both trips became iconic moments in the city's history.

Olivas wants visitors to understand that every part of a space shuttle matters — even the tiniest ones. In 1986, the Challenger shuttle was lost because of a small rubber O-ring that failed during launch. In 2003, Columbia broke apart during reentry because a small piece of foam damaged its heat shield. 'There's no insignificant or small part about space exploration,' Olivas said. 'Every single thing has a role to play.'

Olivas once had to make a repair in space that no one had ever done before. He hung from a robotic arm on Atlantis and used a medical stapler to fix a four-inch hole in the shuttle's heat shield. There was no plan for that kind of fix — his team had to invent a solution on the spot. It was a perfect example of how people can solve problems by thinking creatively under pressure.

Looking down at Earth from orbit changed how Olivas sees the world. From space, he said, you can't see any borders between countries — only the line between land and ocean. He believes that when people work together, amazing things become possible. 'When we work together, we can accomplish phenomenal things,' he said — and the shuttle program, he feels, proved exactly that.