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In all honesty, the Shuttle wasn't supposed to last this long. I would prefer to see this program funded instead of all the waste on entitlement programs, but that would be for another thread.

miamiair wrote:In all honesty, the Shuttle wasn't supposed to last this long.

That's what's got me riled up. The Shuttle was built by guys with drafting boards using slide rules and compasses... and yet, even with the best computer technology we can't even replace it with a go-kart strapped to a rocket motor.

Seeing that F-18 tucked in to the SCA making that beautiful low level pass just seemed to me like NASA flipping the bird to everyone, saying "F you, we may be going to the museum, but we are going to be the best in the world at it", while the rest of the US sits on it's laurels and accepts mediocrity.

Click Click D'oh wrote:I feel like we failed as a nation. The greatest machine we've ever put into space is gone, and we've nothing to replace it despite it being decades past it's service life. Kinda Hurts.

Not as much to me anymore...

http://www.spacex.com

Anybody coming to the MIA meet will be in for a treat. There will be a presentation on the Space Shuttle Program by a member that had the inside access.

First photo...used the boss' Lightroom...not too good at it...but here's a first shot...backlit as all hell...

Nice. Can you crop it a bit closer?

Nice shot from LAX via NASA:


Endeavour Lands at LAX (201209210007HQ) by nasa hq photo, on Flickr

Great series, CO!

JeffSFO wrote:Great series, CO!

Indeed!

Thanks. I luckily put my t3i body in my bag the other morning when I left at 4:30am. I left the battery to my new 5D back in Dallas.

Success!



Too tired to upload more right now....Later tonight, maybe.

miamiair wrote:Nice. Can you crop it a bit closer?

I will...I have a few more to dink around with, too, with the bossman's software. Maybe get to it this weekend...will be working most of the weekend. Unfortunately this will be as crisp as they come...not upload-worthy (unlike CO's...Vik's...Jeff's...etc etc...might need to buy a larger lens). I'm not bummed at all by it...just glad I got some salvageable pictures...a point and shoot wouldn't have worked too well at all with the distance and the smog that we had down here.

Alright, now that I took a nap and am somewhat lucid, here's my story of this awesome day:

Was originally going to head to the hill around 9 AM. But I was messaging with Anet member Silver1SWA, who was heading up from San Diego. We decided to meet at my apartment and carpool; he suggested we leave earlier, which turned out to be quite good advice.

So after about 3 hours of sleep, I got up at 6:40. Met Silver1SWA, and we got to El Segundo around 7:45, probably. Managed to find parking in the residential area, luckily only a few blocks south of the hill. But there were TONS of cars looking for parking.

Got to the hill around 8, and yeah, there were already a lot of people out. We managed to get a spot on the sidewalk, basically in the 2nd row - not too bad. Randomly realized I was standing next to a guy from NY named Mark (not LHMark) whom I'd met at the hill a year or two ago. So had some good company for the next few hours. Shot a bunch of regular aircraft as the temperature got hotter, the heat haze got worse, and the smog failed to go anywhere. Oh well, that's what you get for living in LA.

Around 11:30, you could feel the excitement building in the crowd....which, by the way, had probably multiplied by 20. I was utterly amazed at how many people came out. And probably unlike KSC and Houston, the mood was VERY upbeat.

First sighting was at 11:53 as it made landfall up near Santa Monica or Pacific Palisades (in much the same place that the shuttles did when landing at EDW....but a LOT lower):



Proceeded to basically fly the typical 24R downwind route on its way to downtown LA:





Then we had a break for a few minutes, as it circled over downtown. But soon enough, it approached LAX for its first flyby (over the northside runways):





Then we had a much longer break, as it went up to Hollywood and the Valley to do some flyovers, then down to Orange County and Long Beach/San Pedro. About a half hour later, it did a spectacular flyover of the southside runways (I know I already posted the first shot, but oh well):





Then another 10-minute break, while it swung around to the south to line up for landing. Soon enough:







Amazing. So in summary:

Taking the day off work: 8 hours vacation time
Getting up ass-early to get a spot: 10 hours of general tiredness
Standing for hours in a crowd in the heat: headache, backache, legache, etc...
Seeing Endeavour end its final journey at LAX: PRICELESS

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Great shots Vik. We seemed to have captured the journey from start to finish.

vikkyvik wrote:Around 11:30, you could feel the excitement building in the crowd....which, by the way, had probably multiplied by 20. I was utterly amazed at how many people came out. And probably unlike KSC and Houston, the mood was VERY upbeat.

Reason for that, the Shuttle and its operations were part of these communities, the Shuttle was commonplace.

miamiair wrote:Reason for that, the Shuttle and its operations were part of these communities, the Shuttle was commonplace.

I lived just south of KSC starting in 1970 and grew up watching rockets take off. I never got tired of watching them, but Miamiair is right, even the Shuttle became commonplace.

In the beginning, traffic would stop all over the county with people stopping right in the middle of the road and getting out of their cars to watch, but after a few years a lot of people didn't even bother to look. I watched every one of them until late 1994 when I moved about 100 miles away, and then I still went outside to see what I could.

Admittedly I was spoiled with space shots simply because of where I happened to live. No matter where we live, we all have something cool near our homes that we tend to take for granted; for me it was watching rockets. I saw the Shuttle launch dozens of times, land a few times, heard the sonic booms many times, saw about a dozen flybys up the beach, and sadly was watching the Challenger in 1986. It's hard to believe it's over.

I'm really glad that so many people on this site got to see it across the country. I was hoping to see it when it flew across the State, but the clouds didn't cooperate. I've seen quite a few flybys but I'd have liked to see another. It's funny, all the flybys I saw were by accident; they didn't announce exact times but all of a sudden, there it would be flying low up the coast.

Maybe if more people across the nation had shown such interest while the Shuttle was still flying, we'd have the next generation ready now, instead of being out of the manned space flight business.

Great pics everyone...

For us, this was the first and only time to see this. The excitement lasted far, far longer than even I expected.

Thanks to all who photographed this journey. I should be in LA by February, and the Science Center is on the itinerary.

miamiair wrote:Reason for that, the Shuttle and its operations were part of these communities, the Shuttle was commonplace.

That may be true. But what I meant was that it's probably more of a sad occasion at KSC, and especially at Houston.

For us in LA, it's more like a beginning than an end. Even though I'm not involved with NASA or the Science Center, I can't help feeling really proud that so many people turned out to welcome the Shuttle to LA.

Not to be overlooked, NASA's Vomit Comet (N932NA) even made an appearance.

Another view:

Some crappy video from the San Francisco fly-by:



I was trying to do two things at once so did neither well. Had a camera set up on a tripod for the video and at the same time was trying to pop off shots with my DSLR so was going back and forth between the two. Lesson learned.

Great pictures everyone!

I saw a shuttle live four times. Twice on the pad at KSC, once during a flyover at Langley AFB, and a nigh launch from the pier on Jacksonville Beach. Even from ~125 miles that was a spectacular thing to watch.

The times I saw it on the pad were pretty cool too - we were working at Port Canaveral, and had badges/passes that let us in the gates from that side of KSC. Drove the rental cars to within a couple hundred yards from the pads.

Edit: Five times - We toured KSC on a trip in 1981/82.

Some AWESOME photos from the demate and the flight over greater LA:

http://framework.latimes.com/2012/09/19 ... photos/#/0

You'd be able to see me in #12 if there weren't so many people...

vikkyvik wrote:Some AWESOME photos from the demate and the flight over greater LA:

They certainly are great shots, specially the shots of the reaction of the crowd watching.

vikkyvik wrote:You'd be able to see me in #12 if there weren't so many people...

They closed the street?!

AndesSMF wrote:They closed the street?!

If you're referring to #11, that's Aviation Blvd. Not sure if they closed the street, or people simply took it over.

In #12, yes, they closed Imperial Ave (the street on Imperial Hill).