KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida — Secured atop NASA’s modified 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, space shuttle Endeavour is headed west after a 7:22 a.m. EDT departure from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The early-morning takeoff marked the beginning of the final ferry flight of the Space Shuttle Program.

The flight path will take the aircraft to the northwest, across the Florida panhandle and toward Houston after low-level passes over NASA’s Stennis Space Center in southwest Mississippi and Michoud Assembly Facility east of New Orleans.

Arriving in the Houston area at approximately 9 a.m. CDT, the SCA crew will initiate a 1,500 flyover of various areas of the city, including downtown, before heading to the Clear Lake area. The SCA and Endeavour are predicted to land at Ellington Field at about 10:45 a.m. CDT.

The SCA/Endeavour will depart at dawn on Thursday and make a fueling stop at Biggs Army Air Field in El Paso before proceeding to Dryden Flight Research Facility at Edwards Air Force Base, California. On Friday it will depart Dryden for a flyover of northern California and areas of the Los Angeles basin before landing at LAX between 11 a.m. and noon PDT. In October, Endeavour will move to the California Science Center to begin a new mission inspiring future explorers.