After over 20 years of service NASA's space shuttle Endeavour is ready for its final flight.

But this time it's not soaring into orbit, it's heading west to Los Angeles to begin a new role as museum exhibit.

Built to replace Challenger, the shuttle lost in a 1986 launch accident, Endeavour rode piggyback on a specially modified Boeing 747.

The shuttle had a relatively short lifespan, flying 25 missions with 299 days in space.

Those missions included repairing the Hubble Space Telescope and building and outfitting the International Space Station.

Its final mission in May 2011 was to deliver and install a 2 billion dollar particle detector on the ISS that is searching the cosmos for signs of dark matter and other phenomena.