Endeavor’s last approach to Edwards
So, if you've seen my Space Shuttle page, you know I work at Edwards AFB. For those that haven't read my other Space Shuttle page, I work at Edwards AFB. Those of you who followed the Space Shuttle's final flight, may recall that it stopped at Edwards before it went to LAX. Well, fortune smiled upon me because I accidentally left my camera in my car that day. Oops. It was also a coincidence that I happened to be by the tower that I was on when I took pictures the last time the Shuttle landed at Edwards. I also just happened to... Ok, so I took my camera and went back up on the same tower and took some more pictures. You would too.
It was warm that day, but I braved the heat and climbed back up the tower with my wife's new and improved DSLR camera with a 250mm telephoto zoom lens and took some pictures. It was totally worth it. I got some great shots and it was amazing to see it come in, especially from my vantage point. I figured that anyone who likes the Space Shuttle would love to see pictures of it's final time at Edwards, so I took what I thought were the best pictures and put them on here for you.
The first shots are of the Shuttle first flying over the runway and then over the housing area of the base.
Then a couple F-16s came flying in. Right when the Shuttle was making it's historic flight. They did get off the runway nice and fast though.
Then it lined up for final and came in for a nice touch down. It was a perfect spot, and I was the only one up there with a camera.
That was cool.
On Display
Because I also fly the NASA Global Hawk, I could easily get on the flight line where they parked the Shuttle Carrier. I knew they were going to do some sort of family and friends thing and I'd get to see the airplane on the ramp, but I wasn't prepared for what I really got to see. But I first took a detour to a nice vantage point to see them pulling into parking.
Later, after they had parked the plane, I went to NASA and headed to the ramp. I was surprised at just how big it was. A 747 is big, but the with the Space Shuttle on it, the whole machine is just gargantuan! I had a hard time getting the whole thing in frame with my wife's lens. I wished I had my smaller lens, but I was able to make due.
The whole thing in one picture
One of the other NASA Global Hawk pilots was out there, Phil Hall. He also had a nice camera (and was better prepared with more camera equipment) so he took a couple snaps of me while we were out there.
Then the dropped the rope and let us come up close. I took a bunch of close up shots that I thought the Shuttle buffs might like to see.
It was amazing to see the Shuttle and the Carrier Aircraft up close. I was amazed at how work it looked. Endeavor is the youngest Shuttle, but it is clear how much work it's done. It was amazing to see this moment is history and be able to take so many photos of it. Everyone in my family was very excited about it. The next day, the Shuttle flew over Palmdale and Lancaster, and almost directly over my kids' school. They were all out in the athletic fields and watched it fly over them not once, but twice. Katie was so excited to see it that she was running around the house at 7:00 AM trying to make sure she could see it. It didn't take off until 8:15, but I was happy to see her so excited about it.
So, I figured I should take a couple more shots while I was there. Phil hooked me up and took one last picture of me in front of the Shuttle.
While I was taking all these pictures, I noticed something interesting. They parked the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft right by the other Global Hawks that NASA has. It's amazing to think that the Shuttle was considered an amazing piece of technology that did all these great things, and it was designed in the 1970's. The Global Hawk is considered top of the line strategic reconnaissance UAV, but it's still nothing compared to the Shuttle. Physically, as well. Look how small they look compared to the Shuttle. Keep in mind that Global Hawks are about as wide as a Boeing 757.
One last note. These pictures were all edited and shrunk to fit on my website. I don't have unlimited space, and you don't want to wait for a 3 Mb file to download for each picture. I figured that you might want to see more of them, so I put them on Picasa. I made them publicly available for everyone who wants to see them, so feel free to look. If you want to use them for something, please ask for permission first. I'm pretty agreeable to sharing, but I do want to know about it.