Sunday, July 10, 2011

Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-135 -The Grand Finale July 8, 2011

More later but for now some pics grabbed from the video I took.  suffice it to say the video needs some editing as i'm not a good camera holder type person!  If it will allow me to upload the 1 min 43 secs video i took i might put it up now and edit it later.  please note there IS more after it goes to just clouds as I try to find the shuttle again in the sky!

Enjoy!
We got on this and rode for TWO hours to
NASA at Kennedy Space Center-All day they referred to it as KFC and I was getting hungry for some chicken and slaw!  After getting in the car for the long drive home I realized they were saying kSc which in retrospect makes lots more sense.  Gotta love our govt and its need for acronyms for everything.

We kept our eyes on this all through the day

and saw great hope in this 45 mins before launch time
After touring the rocket building and while son was in the very long lines (at least 4 of them no less tahn 30 people deep) we went and got our lunch from here
Then headed over to the perfect spot for viewing, at least what was left after people already had gotten the first few thousand perfect spots for viewing.
A peek through the trees where I wanted to be, but I admit they were right to not stay there to watch the launch
^ at 36 X wide angle zoom, i did not use the additional levels of digital zoom.  It sure was misty by the time you got that far away with the camera.

~Below is a quick sequence of pictures of the launch.  The video did not upload so I'll build an abbreviated version  in windows movie maker and upload that, hopefully with sound because that part was sooooo neat!












 
Everyone should have a grey shuttle launch after plume coming out of their grey haired head!
Best wishes crew of STS-135

A very special thank you to Astronaut Lodewijk Van Den Berg from STS-51B Space Shuttle flight 17 1985 for having us as his guests for this launch!  What an awesome sight to see!

You can see video of STS-135 here and of STS-51B here