The shuttle Endeavour dodged plenty of space junk zipping around Earth.
The question Saturday, though, was would its wing avoid an apartment building on narrow Crenshaw Drive? Could it gingerly pivot around tall pines planted in honor of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.? Would the streets of Inglewood and Los Angeles buckle under the weight of the 170,000-pound orbiter and its massive transport vehicle?
After months of meticulous planning, those were among the myriad challenges confronting hundreds of workers who escorted Endeavour on the last leg of its 12-mile journey to the California Science Center, where it will be displayed.
PHOTOS: Endeavour rolls through the streets of L.A.
Planners appeared to get the engineering right but not the timing. What began as a head start in the morning turned into an ever-increasing delay by night. As crowds waited along the route, officials said the shuttle would be several hours late to its destination, probably arriving sometime Sunday morning.
Endeavour's 26th and final mission came down to sweating the details. Engineers had mapped its route and possible obstructions down to the millimeter. Crews swarmed around the spacecraft like a court of handmaidens Saturday, taking down streetlights and signs, removing power lines and trimming trees.
"We've been planning for this day for six months," said Southern California Edison worker Michael Fuller. "But a plan is what you do to help you sleep at night. What counts is what we do on the fly during the big event."
After being towed by a pickup truck across a bridge spanning the 405 Freeway late Friday night, the shuttle's epic last commute resumed shortly after 6 a.m. Saturday.
Inching along at a top speed of 2 mph, the five-story-tall Endeavour dwarfed everything in its path, its black nose announcing itself like a curious puppy moving through a miniature diorama.
Thousands of cheering onlookers packed sidewalks, parking lots and rooftops along the spacecraft's route.
Endeavour made a two-hour stop at the Forum in Inglewood, arriving early to the delight of crowds and politicians who crowed about Southern California landing what they called a national treasure.
"Endeavour was born here," state Sen. Roderick Wright (D-Inglewood) said. "This morning ... we have the opportunity to say, 'Welcome home.'"
The rest of the day was a game of inches as Endeavour wriggled, pitched and scooted its way across town.
"All the stuff we move is big, heavy stuff," said Steve Mitchell, one of a team of drivers who piloted the computerized 160-wheel transporter that carried Endeavour. "But nothing that means as much as this. It's just so special."
After leaving the Forum, the shuttle headed east on Manchester Boulevard but soon came up against an obstacle it wasn't built to deal with.
A tree branch.
The transporter stopped. With the flick of a joystick, its driver turned the huge dolly's wheels sideways and slowly scooted it over. Within a minute, Endeavour was rolling again.
Up ahead, Rand Brooks had been working since midnight to further widen one of Endeavour's tightest fits — a curving stretch of Crenshaw Drive where the orbiter's 78-foot wingspan crossed over lawns and driveways and came within a hair's breadth of several buildings.
Crews had placed 400 tons of compacted material on the street to keep the shuttle level with the islands at the intersection with Crenshaw Boulevard and give it more room.
"It's pretty exciting," Brooks said, grateful to be involved. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
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