Warbird Information Exchange

With Atlantis on the pad for the final mission, maybe it's time to share our personal stories and pictures of the 30 year Shuttle program. I'll start with two shots I took of Atlantis at Davis-Monthan in 1996 on her way back to Kennedy after landing at Edwards. It was an awesome sight...

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

Okay, here's mine.
Got an evening tour on Sunday night of Atlantis in the VAB. I was working the airshow at Kennedy Space Center in November of 2008 and the show announcer, Rob Rieder and I, weren't able to make the airshow performer tour given on Saturday.
Sunday evening, they asked us if we wanted to go. YOU BET!

The Sat. tour did not get to ride the elevator to look down at Atlantis, but because there were just three of us, BINGO! We we up and down and all around the Orbiter.

Spent about 15 minutes directly under the main engines (I had to duck) talking about the propellant, launch etc.
IT WAS AWESOME!
We couldn't use a flash in side the VAB due to the SRB's and possible ignition, so the photo of me is a bit out of focus. It's the only one I have of me and the orbiter. Rob took the pic and I'm on the left.
Jerry

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"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

Wouldnt it be great if they could of kept one of the oribters on display in the VAB building?

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Cheers,
Peter

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Endeavor in Fort Worth

Discovery

Endeavor again

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Zane Adams
There I was at 20,000 ft, upside down and out of ammunition.
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GREAT PIX guys! Neat to see this stuff as I live in the north I just have never been lucky with timing to see the Shuttle anywhere but on the pad.

I've thought of this before as they are all retiring, I wonder who is going to get the 747 transporter? I know they don't have room, but it would be really cool for Udvar Hazy to get it and mount the test shuttle on it as it is in the pictures. Really would be a site to see.

Sorry, if you have comments about this, just start a new subject, don't want to hijack the thread, keep the pix comming.

Greg

I just got this in an e-mail from my buddy Bill Foraker
Very cool time lapse of orbiter prep, assembly, and shuttle launch.
No audio until launch...


 http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=KZrFC988Thc

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"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

It has a round engine that says Pratt & Whitney on it, so it's got to be good.....



Seriously, I'm too outraged and heartbroken that we're really gonna deep six our own ability to get to and from the ISS to even talk about it. Not real sane, if you ask me.

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Cheers,
Kurt Maurer
League City, Texas

PIC, Ford 6600 pulling Rhino batwing up and down the runway

I'm reading Riding Rockets by Colonel Mike Mullane, 3 times shuttle astronaut at the moment. It's not an in-depth shuttle book, more a easy reading behind the scenes peek at his time at NASA. What amazes me is the level of fear these guys deal with during each launch - and in his case 9 launch sequences for 3 flights. One aborted launch got as far as something like T-3 seconds, so the APU's were on, the Main Engines were on, they were just waiting for the fuses to be lit on the SRB's. Not to mention the families that get trotted up to the viewing deck each time.

A sad day for the world when these are retired, but at least I can say my kids photos have been in space on STS-134 as part of NASA's Face in Space program.

Fantastic pictures...keep them coming!!!

Mike Mullane's book is a great read as is Tom Jones book Skywalking....

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

OK so not so shuttle but real from Boeing as my uncle worked on the lunar rover.

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"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

The last Shuttle on the Pad....yesterday. What a complete heartbreaker.....

The Shuttle slated for KSC will be by the Vistor Center, as the VAB is a place of work, not a display area.

Sidenote: We saw the astronauts taking from the last mission taking off from the runway to head back to Houston. How cool is that?

STS-2 (Columbia) launch taken by my Uncle from Jensen Beach about 90 miles away in Nov 1981. Not a great picture but I thought it was neat when I was a kid. Note the people on the beach watching...

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

No, it's a great picture. Thanks for sharing it.

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Cheers,
Kurt Maurer
League City, Texas

PIC, Ford 6600 pulling Rhino batwing up and down the runway

At the very first launch I went along with a friend whose mother worked at KSC. We left for the Cape at around 10:00 p.m. the night before and sat in bumper to bumper traffic all night to get to the public veiwing area on the Causeway.

Weirdly, they routed us along next to the Pad 39 area and we drove within about a half a mile of the shsuttle on the pad. The vision of it standing there in the night sky, torched to life by a gazillion electric lights lives on every time I close my eyes and think about it.

Latecomers to the Causeway area crowed up and tried to get in front of those of us who spent all night getting there. The band Rush drove by in their tour bus, on the way to the VIP area. I ended up waist deep in the water to stay ahead of everyone else and get a clear veiw.

I can't describe the veiw as Shuttle lifted, turned and then started upwards. The sound was so loud it flatened the water as it passed over the bays. Land birds flying over the bay dove into it out of fear. We felt heat, even at that distance. Thousands of motor-drive cameras screamed as Shuttle raced skywards. A collective roar came from the crowd as soon as we knew She was safe and on track a few minutes into the flight.

Stuff I worked on in Orlando was on Shuttle. Our plant shut down and TV's appeared for the landing. There was another collective gasp of relief when She touched down safe.

I've followed every lauch as it happens, on TV, radio and internet. I heard the Challenger diaster as it happened and spoke quickly to my parents who saw it from their front yard. Weirdly, when Colombia went down, I had awoken early for no reason and felt forced to turn on the TV. I saw her lost before my eyes live also. I still nearly cry every time I think of either.

I've visited KSC many times, and this week's visit felt even worse than the end of Apollo, when the last missions were canceled before the program ended. Apollo had something planned after it was finished. There is Nothing planned now. There is some vague idea that in a horrible economy, the Private Sector is just going to pick up the peices and move forward like nothing happened. Of course, few people remember talking to the guy behind the 7-11 counter who was there because they no longer needed engineers for NASA like I do.

I hate politics and politicians. I am forced to put great effort into cleaning house of the current naysayers in Washington DC that have destroyed the greatest organization the USA has ever built. People who think not only to the Skies, but The Stars.We are in a war against stupidity, and our "Leaders" are greasing the rails for everyone to get to Stupid faster. It's time for a Fight...

My first time that I saw the shuttle was the last launch of Endeavour. My son and I drove the 16 hours or so and were able to get some pictures like this. Boy I sure wish that I hadn't taken so long to do it. My wife and I are planing to go to the last shuttle launch.