The Space Shuttle Discovery left the Kennedy Space Center on the back of a 747 for the final time. It has been moved to it's new home as an exhibit in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. Some of the Last Shuttle Project team were in DC waiting for it to land, while a few of us were in Florida to cover the departure. NASA let 25 photographers from different news outlets and organizations cover it from the top of the VAB. I've been up there before, but this was my first time on the west side of the building, facing the runway.
That's not me, by the way. That's my friend Manuel, but he's using the same lens I was. It was actually pitch black when we first got to the roof. We stumbled our way across to the north-west corner trying to watch out for wires, pipes, and the other obstacles up there. The 747 pilot took off earlier than expected. I was a bit disappointed because the sun wasn't quite all the way up yet and we needed a little more light.
Here you can see one of the chase planes that accompanied the shuttle.
Luckily the pilot made it up to us by doing two fly-bys past the VAB- one going east and one going north! And on that last one the sun finally poked out and lit Discovery with the perfect morning light.
The VAB roof was the perfect spot because I actually had a view looking DOWN on it! You can see how low it was to the ground as it passed by. I'll leave you with a view of it flying off into the sunrise...
Labels: Discovery, Kennedy, museum, Smithsonian, Space, VAB