seeing the space shuttle -OR- apparently I like the color blue
You may have noticed that the Space Shuttle Atlantis landed at Edwards Air Force Base this past Friday instead of its home at Kennedy Space Center. And, since I live next to Edwards AFB and my girlfriend works for NASA, we got a chance to the facility after hours and see the Shuttle face to face. I didn't think we'd actually get into the inner holding area, but a friend of ours came through for us on Saturday night and suddenly there we were, close enough to see the gaps between the tiles in the heat shield.
myself
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V
<------
me and
estranged_rose
(metal face!)
------>
Slux, Max, & J-Lux
(shuttle side view)
^
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Miss lagizma
It's likely that the Shuttle will land here again in the next few years as there seems to have been roughly a 1-in-3 chance thus far of it occurring post-2000. On the other hand, after 118 missions, the Shuttle is only going up another dozen times before the Shuttle program is retired for good in 2010 to make way for the Constellation program. Which means there are no guarantees that it will come through here again. So I'm very, very glad I got a chance to see it this time around. It's kind of like fulfilling a childhood fantasy -- I didn't get to ride in it or touch it, but I did at least get to actually see it relatively up close.
Atlantis (STS-117) during and prior to its June 8th, 2007 launch.
In the meantime, Atlantis has to be ferried back to Kennedy in Florida which requires a piggy back ride on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft:
Atlantis riding the SCA back in 1998 / an SCA fly-by of Kennedy Space Center
myself
---
|
|
|
V
<------
me and
estranged_rose
(metal face!)
------>
Slux, Max, & J-Lux
(shuttle side view)
^
|
|
|
---
Miss lagizma
It's likely that the Shuttle will land here again in the next few years as there seems to have been roughly a 1-in-3 chance thus far of it occurring post-2000. On the other hand, after 118 missions, the Shuttle is only going up another dozen times before the Shuttle program is retired for good in 2010 to make way for the Constellation program. Which means there are no guarantees that it will come through here again. So I'm very, very glad I got a chance to see it this time around. It's kind of like fulfilling a childhood fantasy -- I didn't get to ride in it or touch it, but I did at least get to actually see it relatively up close.
Atlantis (STS-117) during and prior to its June 8th, 2007 launch.
In the meantime, Atlantis has to be ferried back to Kennedy in Florida which requires a piggy back ride on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft:
Atlantis riding the SCA back in 1998 / an SCA fly-by of Kennedy Space Center