On October 17, 2024, the City of Downey began the move of the first space shuttle mockup, the Inspiration, from a city yard where it has sat for years, to where it will now sit, the Columbia Memorial Space Center.
Downey, California, was an integral part of the United States’ mission into space. But before it was a part of this mission, it was a part of the mission into the skies. Purchasing farmland in 1929 where the Downey Landing and Kaiser Permenente of Downey now sit, E.M Smith founded the EMSCO aircraft corporation to build airplanes. The Great Depression would hit hard a few months later, requiring EMSCO to lease their plant to another company. This company would soon leave as the Depression remained strong, the plant changing into the hands of Walter Kinner’s Company, which had constructed two aircraft for Amelia Earhart, then finally, moving into the hands of Jerry Vultee’s, Vultee Aircraft Inc. As the Second World War began, the Vultee plant in Downey would grow, soon becoming the largest employer in the city, and joining to produce 15% of all U.S military aircraft by 1941. The plant would go on to construct the V-11 attack bomber and other models of aircraft, with the Downey plant being expanded and revamped to allow for more manufacturing and designing. After buying a San Diego based company, Vultee Aircraft would rebrand into Convair. The Downey plant would produce many types of military aircraft throughout the Second World War, shifting to a new focus after the war ended. Convair would shift the plant to the construction of missile systems as a part of government contracts. LARK surface to air missiles, supersonic missiles, and later on, under a new ownership by North American Aviation, military jet aircraft added onto the construction list.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced that the United States “should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth.” NASA would launch bids on the construction of the command and service module for the Apollo Program, which North American Aviation, the new owner of the Downey Plant, would win. With the contract in hand, Downey would go onto constructing the Apollo command and service module for NASA. North American Aviation, soon merging with Rockwell Standard Corporation, forming North American Rockwell, would also receive the other NASA contract for the Saturn V Launch Vehicle, although not fully constructed in Downey, it made Downey a center for the Space Program. Downey would go onto construction 17 of the modules, 6 used for unmanned testflights, the other eleven being manned.
As a result of the new importance of the city, the Downey Plant would become the NASA Industrial Plant, the workforce ballooning to 35,000 workers at its peak, or if modern day population numbers for the city were looked at, it would mean 30% of Downey’s population would be working there today. The plant grew to encompass an area larger than Disneyland, taking up the land where the Downey Landing, Columbia Memorial Space center, Kaiser Permanente from Steward and Grey to Imperial Highway. It operated 24 hours a day to produce for the Apollo Program. New facilities were built, including a mission control room identical to the one in Houston, and test facilities that tested the integrity of the capsules. Even President Ronald Reagan and Queen Elizabeth II visited the plant.
Soon, American priorities would shift in space. No longer would NASA look to continue its old way of operations, it wanted a new, permanent link between Earth and Space. That plan would turn into the Space Shuttle Program, announced by President Nixon on January 5th, 1972. It would allow the ferrying of supplies and personnel up into the vast expanse of space, allowing for humanity to further a presence in outer space. As a result, NASA would dish out new contracts, with Rockwell International (renamed) obtaining the “the subassembly and component manufacture and testing of the first reusable spacecraft” for the Space Shuttle Orbiters. Over 13 years, Downey would go onto work doing the most of the development and a large portion of component manufacturing for the Orbiters, with final assembly occurring at Rockwell’s plant in Palmdale. Six orbiters were constructed with major help from Downey, the Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Eveandor. In 1996, Boeing would purchase Rockwell, acquiring the Downey plant and continuing operations at a lesser scale. In 1999, the Downey NASA Industrial Plant was closed, with its operations being relocated to other existing facilities. With the shutdown of the plant, Downey Studios would set up, operating in the former plant. With the largest indoor water tank in North America, they would go onto contributing to Iron Man, G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra, Spider Man, Catch Me If You Can, and more films, before shuttering their doors in 2012, being replaced with Kaiser Permanente, the Downey Landing, and more.
When the shuttle program began, the Inspiration was born. Built in 1972, 35 feet tall and 112 feet long, it was originally designed as a prototype for the Space Shuttle, and served as a mockup. In an interview with LAist, Ben Dicknow, president of the Columbia Memorial Space Center stated, “Inspiration was probably the biggest step to being able to build a space shuttle that could actually go into space and then come back and be reused.” Inspiration served as a model that all Space Shuttles were based on.
Inspiration had been sitting in a city maintenance yard since 2012, when the NASA Industrial Plant was demolished. Kept in fairly good condition, it was moved in late 2024 in a parade, where the prototype was broken into separate pieces, to a temporary facility across the street from the Walmart Supercenter and Downey Landing, to eventually join the Columbia Memorial Space Center as a part of The Downey Space Shuttle Exhibit & Education Building Project. The project includes the construction of a Space Shuttle museum, which would house the Inspiration, an event and STEM courtyard, STEM building, outdoor classroom, and laws, plazas, and more smaller structures. With a planned completion date in January, 2026. An idea has been floated to turn Inspiration into an interactive exhibit. The Inspiration, as described by former Downey Mayor Guerra, “It’s made out of wood…You can touch it.” Nader Moghaddam,the chair of the Columbia Memorial Space Center Board of Directors mentioned, “…my question is, is there a way we can use that not as a static exhibit but possibly as a way kids can go inside…If we can do that, it would take some resources, but it would be the kind of thing to foster attention.” This aligns with the Space Center’s mission, to create critical and creative thinkers through their exhibits and programs.
Soon, the Inspiration will find itself parked in its new home, on display for all the world to see. Downey’s contributions to air and space are historic, and even though the city has moved on from the space program, its legacy still stands.
