Final Shuttle Launch: STS-135

Space Shuttle Atlantis lifts off launch pad 39-A for the final launch of the shuttle era at Kennedy Space Center on Friday, July 8, 2011 in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Atlantis is flying for a scheduled 12-day mission to the International Space Station which ends the shuttle program after 135 missions.

Wow, its been 5 months since I updated this. Lets start someplace fun..... like the final, historic space launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis. Here's the whole story:

Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-132) Launch

After a 3 year and 17 flight hiatus, i made my return to the Kennedy Space Center and photographed the final (scheduled) flight of Atlantis.

How one person gets so many photos after the break....

Vacation! Air & Space Museum Annex

So I'm posting my vacation photos out of order. This was the day after Christmas at the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center which houses the Air & Space Museum's annex. They have the SR-71 Blackbird (world's fastest plane), the Enola Gay (dropped the atomic bomb) as well as the Space Shuttle Enterprise and lots of other airplanes.



The B-29 Enola Gay which dropped the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945.



These are the arming plus for the first atomic bomb. You removed the green ones - which kept it unarmed - and inserted the red ones in flight. According to the tour guide, they were found in the plane during its refurbishment.



The Space Shuttle Enterprise. (I saw it at Dulles once before out in a field, years before this museum was built)

It was a static, atmosphere only test vehicle and never flew into space. But its still cool.



Just was trying for the layered overall shot with a lot of airplanes. In there is an AIr France Concorde, which used to fly in and out of Dulles all the time.



As we were leaving, this KLM 777 was landing on 1R at Washington Dulles.

ISS in 3 Minutes?

Okay, somehow it escaped my grasp that the space station would be viewable high in the sky tonight.

I found out 3 minutes before it was due overhead. Not even enough time to remember which was was SW and NE.

I went ISO 100, 17mm at 5.6 and just opened up the shutter. It works but isn't what i would have done if i had known about it.