VAB the night before STS-135 launch

The VAB stands silently by while Atlantis hogs all the attention the night before the launch of STS-135 and the final shuttle flight. This immense building is where two generations of NASA spacecraft, the Apollo-Saturn rockets and Space Shuttles have been assembled before being transported out to Launch Complex 39 and sent off on their missions. It stands empty now with no manned launches from Kennedy Space Center in the near future. The tall tower at left is a relic of the recently canceled Constellation program and was built to launch the Ares I rockets with Orion capsules on them at a cost of about $390 million. This image was taken with my 75-300mm lens at f/5.6, ISO 100 and 30 seconds.

The VAB up close

During the KSC tour, we stopped next to the VAB - actually at the site where the Saturn V rocket used to be displayed before it was moved to the Saturn V center not too far down the road. This image is slightly cropped from the original that was shot with the kit lens at 28mm focal length with an exposure of 1/200 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

The VAB

The Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center is visible from all over the area. This is the view from one of NASAs public viewing sites for shuttle launches. This image was taken with the kit lens on my 20D with an exposure of 1/320 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100 with a focal length of 55 mm.

X-Prize Lunar Lander challenge

This is the lunar lander entry from Armadillo Aerospace which attempted to win the X-Prize Lunar Lander competition at the X-Prize Cup at Holloman Air Force Base on Saturday. The competition was for the lander to rise from a launch pad to a height of 100 meters, then translate about 100 meters hover for about 90 seconds then land on a simulated lunar surface. Then, within 2.5 hours, it was to be refueled and launch from the simulated surface and return to its original launch pad, reaching 100 meters altitude and hovering for 90 seconds again before landing. In this photo, the lander has reached altitude and has tilted to the side to begin its translation. The first leg was completed successfully, but a slight mishap with only seconds left caused it to fail to win the X-Prize competition. It was exciting to watch and disappointing to see the end of the flight. This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/2000 seconds at f/8, ISO 200.

LM-2 Landing gear detail #2

Here's another closeup, this time of the lower landing gear actuator hardware at the base of the descent stage where the landing gear hinges from the stage.

Landing Gear attach point, LM-2

This is a closeup of the mounting point on the outriggers of the landing gear on LM-2 in the National Air & Space Museum. After orbiting around the LM with a wider angle lens, I put on my 70-300mm zoom and started taking closeups of details of the vehicle. I wanted to see the nuts and bolts up close. This image was taken at 119mm focal length with an exposure of 1/200 seconds at f/4.5, ISO 3200.

LM-2

LM-2 was to be used for the 2nd unmanned test flight of a Lunar Module in Earth orbit, but the flight of LM-1 went so well, that LM-2 was not needed. Since it was an early production model intended for unmanned flight, it remained the only early production Lunar Module that didn't get used for manned tests. So when it was donated to the Smithsonian and prepared for display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, it was redressed to look like LM-5 which carried the first crew of humans to the surface of the Moon in July 1969 as the Eagle of Apollo 11. This image was taken with the kit lens at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/60 seconds at f/4, ISO 400.