The shuttle Endeavour, after its recently complete last mission, is expected to arrive at its Los Angeles retirement in the latter half of 2012, officials said.

Officials at the California Science Center said they had hoped the shuttle could be in place by the end of 2011, but NASA officials have said detoxifying the space shuttle and preparing it for display will take longer.

The delay in Endeavour's final mission and preparation for the upcoming mission of the shuttle Atlantis in July have also been factors in pushing back the arrival date, officials said.

California Science Center President Jeffrey Rudolph said the museum is making progress raising the $28.8 million needed to pay for Endeavour's cleanup at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and to transport it to Los Angeles.

"We're not there yet. But we're feeling good about it," Rudolph said of the fundraising effort.

Having Endeavour land at Edwards Air Force Base in California would have been impractical, he said, as most of the equipment to detoxify the shuttle is in Florida.

The museum will display Endeavour at a temporary home when it arrives in Los Angeles, Rudolph said, while a new permanent home is designed and constructed, a project predicted to take at least five years.

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