Space Shuttle

Post by **tsmall07** » Apr 17, 2012 1:38 PM

The Space Shuttle Discovery did a fly-over in the DC area today and landed at Dulles airport. It will be on display in the Air & Space museum by the end of the week. I missed it flying in because of a stupid owner's meeting in Alexandria, but I did go to the airport after and got a shot of it on the ground. The cranes are ready to lift it off:

Shannon (fiance) got this picture of it flying over her jobsite in Clarendon (Arlington):

and one of our superintendents got a few good shots as it flew right over head:

There were hundreds of cars parked along rt 28 that runs beside the airports and all of the overpasses were jammed with people. It was quite a sight. I'm sure seeing the Shuttle fly over in person was awesome and I'm pretty annoyed I missed it when I'm so close.

I'll go and see it in the museum in a few weeks after the crowds die down some. The last time I was at the A&S Museum, it was to watch the second Transformers movie in the IMAX theater there. That was awesome because part of the movie was filmed at the museum.

alijonny · Post by **alijonny** » Apr 17, 2012 1:41 PM

That's really cool. Thanks for sharing.

Mark in Toronto · Post by **Mark in Toronto** » Apr 17, 2012 2:05 PM

Looks like it could use a fresh coat of white paint. LOL!

Seriously, cool images.

stuartinmn · Post by **stuartinmn** » Apr 17, 2012 2:13 PM

Mark in Toronto wrote:Looks like it could use a fresh coat of white paint. LOL!

Seriously, cool images.

I read in the paper the other day they'll be exhibiting it in 'as last flew' state, with all the grime and burned tiles and everything intact.

Kind of reminds of one time when I was at NASA Langley in Virginia - for some reason an F117 did a low flyover (this was in about 1989, not long after the government acknowledged the thing even existed.) Even though most people there were pretty jaded when it came to exotic aircraft, everyone stopped in their tracks to watch it go by.

davintosh · Post by **davintosh** » Apr 17, 2012 2:22 PM

A good friend of mine lives on Merritt Island, just down the road from the shuttle landing facility, and snapped these photos from his driveway this morning:

The end of an era. I guess NASA is on to bigger & better things now, like making the Arab nations feel better about wanting to live in the fifth century.

Post by **tsmall07** » Apr 17, 2012 3:22 PM

davintosh wrote:The end of an era.

I'd hate to go down in history as the guy that effectively ended the space program.

Motronic · Post by **Motronic** » Apr 17, 2012 3:38 PM

Thanks for sharing those pics, awesome sight!
Bittersweet end to the United States space program.

Every time I saw one launch it was a feeling of national pride. Now what's going to happen when we need to go to the International Space Station, thumb a ride from Russia?

JohnH · Post by **JohnH** » Apr 17, 2012 3:54 PM

Motronic wrote: thumb a ride from Russia?

No from Richard Branson. Though that may have gone tits up now that Scaled Composits has a new owner. How could Burt do that?

Karl Grau · Post by **Karl Grau** » Apr 17, 2012 4:11 PM

I'm guessing we'll be bumming rides from the Chinese until our new President, Newt Gingrich builds the moonbase.

Post by **tsmall07** » Apr 17, 2012 4:45 PM

Here's a few more from a superintendent with another company that was working at the airport.

djazz · Post by **djazz** » Apr 17, 2012 5:27 PM

Seeing these pics, I don't know which emotion is strongest. It became pretty routine to see a piggybacking shuttle coming through Carswell AFB while I was stationed there but it always made me proud of our nation's accomplishments. Then I get the tear at the corner of my eye thinking about that day, 1FEB2003, when I heard an unbelievably loud BOOM outside. This quickly moves to anger and shame that the greatest endeavor ever attempted by man is seen as a waste of money. I wonder sometimes if I'll ever be proud of my country again.

Motronic · Post by **Motronic** » Apr 17, 2012 5:41 PM

djazz wrote: I wonder sometimes if I'll ever be proud of my country again.

Oh yes you will. Next time you see North Korea trying to launch one!

mechacode · Post by **mechacode** » Apr 17, 2012 6:07 PM

I'll always remember being 6 years old on a trip to florida with grandma and seeing a space shuttle parked outside for everyone to ogle along with some of the earlier rockets. Aww inspiring to say the least.

Mark 88/M5 Houston · Post by **Mark 88/M5 Houston** » Apr 17, 2012 8:42 PM

Brings back memories of when they brought Columbia into KSC for STS-1. I had passes and a friend and I were so close that my shortest telephoto lens was way too much. We were within 50ft of the wing tip when they taxied in.

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Apr 18, 2012 2:23 AM

I got to see a shuttle lunch from KSC in '96 or so, as a guest of Purdue University. It was amazing. I've never experienced anything else like it.. "seeing sound" come at you. The shuttle is up in the air but you haven't heard anything yet.. we were at an observation area that was a ways away, across a big body of water. And you could see white caps tearing across the surface of the water towards your position.. it helped build the sense of anticipation that when you finally _felt_ the sound, that it would be as magnificent as what your eyes had already told your brain was happening.

I like to sit my kids on my lap and show them youtube videos of shuttle and saturn V launches. I think seeing that kind of thing should awaken the best parts of every child. Plus, it gives me an excuse to watch them. They can't see my eyes misting up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzCsDVfPQqk

When I watch those things take off, it represents everything that I value about the human condition. The courage of the astronauts sitting on top of those giant masterpeices. The intelligence and perserverence of thousands of engineers. The pride and the precision of the craftsman who machine and assemble the components. Every single person involved in getting one of those systems to the launch pad and lighting it off has done something magnificent. Each in their own way, each their own peice. The culmination of thousands of dedicated visionaries, compressed into 1 observable instant...

Sending men to outerspace, atop a magnificent column of metals and human ingenuity.. this is the testament to man's mind, his ambition, his excellence. It is a record of his worth; a terrifying spectacle of his dominion over nature.

I imagine a thousand million glass ceilings above that rocket, representing the doubts of the small minded; the failures of those who gave up; the apathy of the passionless. And as I watch the liftoff, impossibly the rocket pushes ever skyward.. and it shatters each and every one of those false ceilings.

Forever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq_shHu4lAs

freetoride · Post by **freetoride** » Apr 18, 2012 5:18 AM

I remember that all of our classes in high school would stop after we rolled in the TVs so that everyone could watch the live broadcasts of the launches. It was a big deal back then........

MicahO · Post by **MicahO** » Apr 18, 2012 9:42 AM

Excellent pictures all around - thanks!

We were at Udvar-Hazy on Friday last week. I was sure the place opened at 9:00, and it opens at 10. But that was no problem - my insistence on being early meant that we were the first ones in the parking lot and the first through the ropes when they dropped them. Walking into an empty hangar with the Enterprise and no other humans was pretty cool.

I'd love to be there this week while Discovery and Enterprise are there on the tarmac together.

Edit - Matt, that was very well-written. I may end up quoting some of that. Thanks for your thoughts and the imagery.

WilNJ · Post by **WilNJ** » Apr 18, 2012 10:05 AM

Here's a great video highlighting the history of the STS program.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II7QBLt36xo

Post by **tsmall07** » Apr 18, 2012 10:27 AM

MicahO wrote:We were at Udvar-Hazy on Friday last week.

Why didn't you let me know?!? I live ~10 miles from there.

MicahO · Post by **MicahO** » Apr 18, 2012 12:35 PM

tsmall07 wrote:
MicahO wrote:We were at Udvar-Hazy on Friday last week.
Why didn't you let me know?!? I live ~10 miles from there.

ACK - Sorry! We were rolling back north from a few days down at Colonial Williamsburg. I had us hit the road < 6:30 for my perceived 9:AM open. I've been too dang busy lately, should have thought to check in with some folks!

Are you going to make it over there to see the two Shuttles together?!?!?

Post by **tsmall07** » Apr 18, 2012 1:17 PM

MicahO wrote:Are you going to make it over there to see the two Shuttles together?!?!?

I'm going to try. I'll have to see how the lines are.

wkohler · Post by **wkohler** » Apr 18, 2012 2:49 PM

Something tells me some astronauts are slightly bitter.

http://www.9news.com/news/article/26371 ... dy-Russian

ElGuappo · Post by **ElGuappo** » Apr 18, 2012 3:25 PM

Matt wrote:I got to see a shuttle lunch from KSC in '96 or so, as a guest of Purdue University. It was amazing. I've never experienced anything else like it.. "seeing sound" come at you. The shuttle is up in the air but you haven't heard anything yet.. we were at an observation area that was a ways away, across a big body of water. And you could see white caps tearing across the surface of the water towards your position.. it helped build the sense of anticipation that when you finally _felt_ the sound, that it would be as magnificent as what your eyes had already told your brain was happening.

I like to sit my kids on my lap and show them youtube videos of shuttle and saturn V launches. I think seeing that kind of thing should awaken the best parts of every child. Plus, it gives me an excuse to watch them. They can't see my eyes misting up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzCsDVfPQqk

When I watch those things take off, it represents everything that I value about the human condition. The courage of the astronauts sitting on top of those giant masterpeices. The intelligence and perserverence of thousands of engineers. The pride and the precision of the craftsman who machine and assemble the components. Every single person involved in getting one of those systems to the launch pad and lighting it off has done something magnificent. Each in their own way, each their own peice. The culmination of thousands of dedicated visionaries, compressed into 1 observable instant...

Sending men to outerspace, atop a magnificent column of metals and human ingenuity.. this is the testament to man's mind, his ambition, his excellence. It is a record of his worth; a terrifying spectacle of his dominion over nature.

I imagine a thousand million glass ceilings above that rocket, representing the doubts of the small minded; the failures of those who gave up; the apathy of the passionless. And as I watch the liftoff, impossibly the rocket pushes ever skyward.. and it shatters each and every one of those false ceilings.

Forever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq_shHu4lAs

Duke · Post by **Duke** » Apr 18, 2012 3:32 PM

waynet1 · Post by **waynet1** » Mar 15, 2014 9:37 PM

Shuttle Discovery's Last Mission

Just watched it on Netflix. Lots of emotions come out.

MyE28.com

MyE28.com

Space Shuttle

Space Shuttle