Space Shuttle Landed

[DesertRat]

I took my brother and his wife out to the base to watch the Shuttle landing this afternoon. We had the best seats in the house since we watched it from the control tower.

Another beautiful day in the desert

This is the view looking northeast over Rogers Dry Lake

That's me (in blue) my sister-in-law and my brother

Looking due east

The large hangar in this photo is home of the Airborne Laser. The modified 747 designed to shoot down ballistic missiles in flight.

The Shuttle support "train" heading out to stage for the landing

This was pulled from the video my brother took which is why it is so blurry

Wheels stop

The support team has arrived

 

[Spad31]

Very, very cool. Thanks for the pics, Ratso!

Trey

 

[AVB]

Where are all the news people at?

 

[The Green Monkey]

Awesome. Thanks for posting!

 

[cpprhead59]

Unreal pictures, thanks so much for posting!

 

[Yeahthatsme]

Man that's a nice view Danny, thanks for the pics!

 

[Nimrod]

Cool pics

 

[Wolfie]

I envy you, that must have been a sight. Thanks for the picture!

 

[PJ the Comic]

Very nice Danny, thanks!

PJ

 

[MadMonk]

Nice pics Danny. Pretty cool how that thing glides in. Did it make any noise upon entering the atmosphere?

I used to live in Ocala, FL. The night launches were very visible with a huge ball of fire, at least two times larger than the moon. Very nice thing to watch, out in a field, with a lounge chair, drink, and a smoke.

 

[anvil]

Wicked photos mate.

 

[The Black Cloud]

Cool pics! MadMonk, as for your question, yes indeed there were two large sonic booms that shook the whole area. Unfortunately I was commuting back home from work and don't remember hearing them. But I've experienced them enough times to know how powerful they can be. It sounds like a shotgun blast in a small room and the whole house shakes. From what I hear, there were many phone calls made to police from people who didn't know what it was. I also heard that from a poster on another board that people came running out of his office building after the booms! Good stuff.

 

[chainer]

I imagine that was pretty loud... Weather looks prime for cigars, though.

 

[Not A Nice Person]

Sweet! I love space program stuff! Looks like a great day.

~Boar

 

[Shamrocker]

You weren't kidding you had the best seats in the house! Having that view for any regualr aviation schedule would be pretty sweet too. Thanks for the pictures.

 

[tmoney2007]

I doubt they will do it, but maybe I'll get a flyby when they take it back to FL. They did it a few missions ago, and I was unprepared.

 

[KayakinBoy]

As someone who went to Space Camp and went to Huntsville Space and Rocket center over ten times as a kid (Yeah I know ) I'm truly jealous.