The Today Show- Viral Video

At first I was hesitant to post this video on-line because I didn't want to embarrass Marty. He's in the video dressed as Santa. And as you'll see, he gets an unfortunate look at the business end of a speeding bed on wheels. As fate would have it, it just happened to be one of the beds that I had a camera mounted to. But Marty said he was OK with it, so I put it up  on YouTube.

The video took place back in September. As of this past Saturday it only had 300 views, and I'm pretty sure I knew everybody that clicked on it.  But I'm finally mentioning it now because the Today Show and MSNBC have picked it up. They contacted me to ask if I took the footage and exactly what was going on in the video. I answered their 3 or 4 questions and just hoped they got most of the facts right.

Sorry if you have to sit through an ad-


Here's the original video on YouTube-

SWAT Team Helicopter

I had a wonderful trip to Florida recently. It included the usual sun, seafood, and helicopter ride with the NASA SWAT team.

OK, so maybe that last one wasn't so typical. But fortunately it did happen. The Shuttle program may be over, but the Last Shuttle Project is continuing to move forward. We captured some footage of various NASA security teams, including the drug & bomb dogs, the Security Control Room, the Marine Patrol airboats, and the SWAT team.

First Rhonda and I had to complete a little medical check-up to make sure that we were healthy enough to fly. Then the guys took us up so we could see what one of their security sweeps looks like. This guy was sitting behind me...

Rhonda was by by the right door while I was on the left. It was a bit unnerving as they made some of their hard banking turns (I won't even begin to tell you about the wimpy little seatbelt that was holding us in... I don't like to think about it). Rhonda is smiling here despite the fact that I'm looking straight down at her as we bank to the right.

We got some great views of the launch pads. In the foreground is pad 39A, site of the last Space Shuttle launches. The now dismantled pad 39B is visible in the background. 

And we took a few trips around the huge Vehicle Assembly Building. I photographed two shuttle launches from on top of it, and it was strange to see it from this point of view.

We'd like to thank all the security team members for being so great to us while we were there. They went out of out way to make sure we were getting the footage we needed. The helicopter ride was just the icing on the cake. By the end of the ride I think we were both hooked and wanted to do it again. It was a bouncy, choppy flight, but we took video from up there as well. Perhaps I'll have time to put together a quick video montage soon. Stay tuned!

Sony Magazine

All of us working on the Last Shuttle Project are grateful to Sony for donating a number of cameras that we used for the last few shuttle launches. We placed many of them around the launch pad and in different areas with good views of the liftoff.

The cover of Sony Camera's magazine "Inside Edge" has an image of the final Atlantis liftoff taken by one of those cameras. We'd like to thank El-Deane Naude from Sony for helping make all this happen. These wonderful images will continue to pop up in different places. I'll keep you informed as they do.