Endeavour in the streets of LA

We traveled to L.A. to watch the "Endeavour Parade" as the Space Shuttle Endeavour was transported along city streets from LAX all the way to Exposition Park and the California Science Center, a 15 mile journey that was planned to take almost two full days.  We got to L.A. on Friday morning and Endeavour left LAX around 2 AM.  We found a busy city with closed streets but found a parking spot along a street one block from Manchester Avenue not far from LAX where it was schedule to roll past around 2PM in the afternoon after a stop to reconfigure the transporter.  We found our viewing site at Wiley Post and Manchester.  The crowds grew and finally, we could see the tail of the orbiter appear and it slowly moved past us at 2 mph.  This view was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure f/9 and 1/400 seconds at ISO 100.

As it slowly passed us, I was able to change lenses and get some closeups of the orbiter which flew 25 missions into space.  The thermal blankets used around the upper part of the fuselage around the cockpit show their structure as well as the wear and tear of flying to and from space.  This image was taken with my 75-300mm telephoto at 190mm focal length with an exposure of 1/800 seconds at f/9, ISO 100.

Another closeup of the tiles on the side of the orbiter shows the streaking on the black tiles due to re-entry heating on the tiles.  You can also see that each of the tiles had an identification number printed on it.  This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/100 seconds at f/9, ISO 100.

"Cut Her for Emergency Rescue" was happily never used but this shows rescue personnel where an area of the cockpit designed to be cut through more easily was so they could access the crew compartment if needed.  You can also see the serial numbers on the thermal blankets and the stitching in them.  This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/500 seconds at f/9, ISO 100.

The nose of the Endeavour housed the forward Reaction Control System engines that were used to orient the orbiter in space as well as to make fine adjustments to its velocity.  In front of the RCS is the grey colored nose cape that had to withstand some of the highest temperatures on the orbiter during its re-entry into the Earths atmosphere.  The entire RCS module could be removed for servicing between missions if needed.  The RCS used hypergolic propellants that would ignite when the fuel and oxydizer came into contact - a reliable but rather difficult fuel to use.  This image was taken at 75mm focal length with an exposure of 1/160 seconds at f/9, ISO 100.

Liberty Star, SRB & the VAB

We had "fun" chasing Liberty Star and the SRB it carried through Port Canaveral. We spent more than 2 hours at Canaveral Lock waiting for it before we were told that it would not come through on Sunday afterall, so we went to the Cape Canaveral Air Force Museum to see the Dragon Spacecraft only to find out after our visit to the museum that it in fact was "in the lock now!" So we missed the lock passage and dashed around to A1A where I got this picture of it in the distance with the VAB in the background.

Go Atlants Go!

Atlantis climbs into the Florida sky as it makes the 135th and final launch of the Space Shuttle program on July 8, 2011. The boat in the foreground dragged its anchor and ended up right in line with our view from Space View Park in Titusville as the main engines and then SRBs lit to begin its flight. This image was taken with my 75-300mm lens at 300mm focal length, 1/400 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

STS-135, the night before

We watched the launch of Atlantis on the final shuttle flight of STS-135 on July 8. This was the view of the launch pad with low hanging clouds the night before launch as viewed from Space View Park in Titusville where we watched the launch. The bright xenon lights illuminate the shuttle and launch pad as well as the sky overhead. This exposure was with my 70-300mm lens at f/5.6, ISO 100, 30 seconds.

SLF control tower

The Shuttle Landing Facility is the runway that the Space Shuttle lands on at Kennedy Space Center when it returns from orbit. This is the control tower adjacent to the runway. To the left of the building are the viewing stands used by family of the crew and VIPs during shuttle landings. This image was taken at 42mm focal length with an exposure of 1/125 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

Enterprise

This is another view of Enterprise and the space gallery at the Udvar-Hazy Center of the Air & Space Museum. There are lots of really cool things in this area. Rockets, satellites, manned spacecraft, spacesuits, and even the MQF. "What?", you are probably asking is an MQF? I'll show you in my next entry..... This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/100 seconds at f/6.3, ISO 800.

Majestic Enterprise

It's hard to imagine just how big a Space Shuttle is, but you can get an idea at the Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air & Space Museum near Dulles Airport by standing right next to one. This is the Shuttle Enterprise which has never flown in space, but was used in the late 1970s in drop tests to qualify the Shuttles for their gliding landings, as well as in launch pad fit tests at the Kennedy Space Center long before a space worthy orbiter was ready to fly. This view of Enterprise was taken from the center of the NASM annex. You can also see an astronaut in an MMU hanging above and left of the orbiter. This image was taken with the kit lens at 53mm focal length with an exposure of 1/80 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 800.

ISS & Shuttle into the sunset

As the Sun sets on both spacecraf, their trailed images fade to invisible. This image was taken just after the previous one. The image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 30 seconds at f/3.5, ISO 400.

ISS & the Shuttle

We were presented with a decent pass of the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle Atlantis. They undocked yesterday and Atlantis is scheduled to land tomorrow. The ISS leads the shuttle in this view and produced a brighter trail than the shuttle. The spacecraft are moving left to right and Polaris, the "North Star" is visible just above center above the trails. The right end of the leading ISS trail is just beginning to fade as the ISS passes into the Earth's shadow and disappeared a few moments later. This image was taken with the kit lens at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 30 seconds at f/3.5, ISO 400. The bright glow of the city lights of Tucson provides the dome of light extending up into the sky.