Space Shuttle heads home...

[dellison]

There are some cool things about working at Edwards...

[dubtrub]

Man! That is a beautiful shot. I see you took that picture.

[Veenture]

That is professional.

Excellent shot Duane, good focus while the action (speed) is still all there!

[GattonFan]

Excellent shot - poster quality.

Dennis

[Haole Jim]

Fantastic photo, Duane, thank you for sharing.

Having begun the life-journey in the glorious 50s and infinitely more glorious 60s and being a hopeless, unrepentent science geek, this kind of photo STILL blasts a super-sized dose of "THAT IS SO COOL!" adrenaline into the system.

(Bleep)ing pity, the world got sidetracked by Hungary and The Berlin Wall and Vietnam and numerous Middle East wars and African and Asian mega-horrors and Bosnia and...

...exponential societal decadence...

...and we Earthlings did not see the spectacular, hopeful could-have-been reality of "2001 A Space Odyssey," but rather...

...the beyond-insanity of "2001 Twin Towers."

[Dennisthe Menace]

Duane, that's Incredible!

It also gives new meaning to the term 'Piggyback' as compared to amplifiers with that title..... .

[ElTwang]

Someone here knows how to handle a photo shoot. That's totally pro! Thanks for sharing.

[dellison]

Hey thanks everyone, appreciate the feedback and I was glad I was able to share! You know I have been at Edwards since 1993 and I have seen the shuttle land many times but I have ALWAYS missed it leaving. To make matters worse (harder) it was scheduled to leave on the weekend at 0620... Now I am not sure about you guys, but going BACK to work on a weekend and and being there before 0620 is not really my idea of a good time. BUT, there are only like 3 more shuttle launches before they retire the fleet and Edwards is always a fallback plan and they never plan/want to send it here.

It was really cool to watch it leave. I actually barely made it in time and as I was getting out of the truck they had hit the main runway and were revving up the engines for takeoff. So I jumped out of the truck and QUICKLY grabbed a camera and lens and was able to squeeze off some frames. As it was lifting off I actually lowered the camera so I could just watch it for a few. It was amazing to actually see that. I mean a 747 is a pretty big plane and having the shuttle on top of it is just really impressive.

Thanks again!

Duane...

[Haole Jim]

Only three more shuttle launches and not a replacement in sight. What a tragedy for humankind.

Instead of space exploration in the post "2001 A Space Odyssey" decade, we have 500 channels of cable, Afghanistan, texting, 3rd generation welfare families, Iraq, cancer attacking ever more people, Iran wanting nukes...

...something went dreadfully wrong for the earthlings.

[Veenture]

Only three more shuttle launches and not a replacement in sight. What a tragedy for humankind.

uhmmm....eh...not so sure about that. We can put a man on the moon but still cannot cure the common cold...