Happy Homecoming Endeavor!
animajik_6696dda723
Posts: 109
I wanted to share this shot of the shuttle (from Barnsdall Park) overlooking the Hollywood Sign and the Griffith Park Observatory and the Shuttle Endeavor.
Awesome site!!!
(I live only 4 miles over the hill from this location)
A day I will never forget!
-AniMajik
Post edited by animajik_6696dda723 on
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Comments
A very nice and historic shot.
The landing at Edwards AFB produced some spectacular shots:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RJyI0pBFbI
There will probably be more video posted to that channel. The chase plane was in close formation the entire time.
Final landing at LAX:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/09/space-shuttle-endeavour-makes-its-last-landing-at-lax.html
There was also a flyby near the Golden Gate, and Moffett Field in the SF Bay area.
It was on News at Ten in the UK here, some great footage.
I'm sure we will see these shots again and again in years to come.
My Uncle helped design the Space Shuttle, at Nasa, in Houston.
I lived in Houston for many years and visited the Space Center several times.
I'm pretty pissed off that NONE of the Shuttles have a home where they were born.
California? Ney York?!
What the hell did they have to do with Nasa or the Space Shuttle?
Not a damn thing.
The shuttle were all born (built) in Palmdale, CA by Rockwell, Int (Now Boeing) 35 miles NE of Los Angeles
Palmdale, CA - Where the first shuttle "Columbia", followed by "Challenger", "Atlantis" and "Discovery" were built there. (The "Endeavour" was built to replace the ill-fated "Discovery")
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is in Pasadena, CA - 10 miles east of Los Angeles
Edwards Air Force Base (Just north east of Los Angeles, CA) - Where the shuttle landed
(The Endeavour's paid homage to all of the above places with a fly-over today.)
I'd say CA had a lot to do with the Shuttle.
I was working as a Telecommunications Tech at the time of the first Challenger flight. (I help to set up TV and Radio feeds between news networks and Edwards AFB) - It was a wondrous time in our history!
-AniMajik
Hi...
Actually, all of the shuttles were built from the ground up at the Rockwell plant in Downey, CA and assembled at the Rockwell facilities in Palmdale, CA right next to Edwards AFB.
Endeavor was the last shuttle to be built, so it's fitting that she's coming back and will be displayed only a few miles from her birth place.
Now I will agree, why did New York get one? Well, popular museum (Intrepid) and lots of tourists, most likely.
The Johnson Space Center in Houston does have the full size shuttle trainer though.
And one last thing, Southern California has a long history with NASA. Many parts and systems for all of the Manned programs, Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, along with the un-Manned programs, were built here by Boeing, Douglas, Rockwell, Rocketdyne, North American, McDonnell and others. And the "Enterprise" proof of flight tests and "Columbia"'s first landing were at Edwards AFB.
Most all of them are gone now, but the childhood memories of seeing the giant rockets on display in front of the buildings and the various sections and parts being moved around I will never forget.
geez.... did I just date myself... :roll:
nicci... :)
Great shot, AniMajik!
Yup, not to minimize the iconic roles of Houston and Florida, but California was her birthplace. If it helps, I would've picked Houston over DC.
I've heard their sonic booms here, as they were coming down 300 miles North of their alternate landing site.
(We don't go far enough South to give as much equatorial-spin boost as Florida can, and, like Texas, too much land around).
I've watched plenty of footage of these piggybacks, as they went back to work in Florida, but this time she was coming home.
Photos - Space Shuttle Endeavour Construction. Rockwell Facility in Downey, Rockwell Palmdale, a chunk from General Dynamics (San Diego, Ca.), And, just to rub it in :cheese:, her vertical tail section came from Fairchild, New York (5th picture). To throw in some more pretty pix Building Space Shuttle Discovery
California is resplendent with aerospace industry. We're responsible for quite literally tons of satellites, experiments, museum pieces, and space junk. Not to mention a fair amount of their electronic goodies from Silicon Valley. A brother-in-law worked swing shifts at Aerojet, Rancho Cordova. I've heard a lot of their rocket motors & engines being tested (I mean really, really heard them).
They had the decency not to test them before an air raid siren drill. (Anyone remember those, like, what are you going to do, really?).
DC... 8-/ JFK started the moon shot program, but the rest of them just kept NASA constantly scrapping plans & projects and starting over again, as they were bickered over the relatively small (for Fed spending) budget, and what this year's NASA priorities were.
New York... I dunno... tourists?
In a sense, financially speaking, Texas, New York, and California also contributed by being among the states who pay out substantially more federal tax than they get back (I don't remember if Florida is in that group, offhand). We could use some of that money to ameliorate the pollution from most of the country's imports being freighted through our smog-trapping valleys
Meanwhile, I'm pissed that the news was no help in spotting her, as she passed me twice, in the process doing a U-turn past & over downtown. The only clue was "coming down I-5", but she might've passed by then. It's possible that she was behind the treetops (I'm in some older 'burbs, in the "City of Trees"). The I'm way too Southward of downtown for their comments, and telephoto shots to do any good. :sick:
I should've been on the roof, but there was no one to call 911 if my declining sense of balance betrayed me. And the trees are well above rooftop level. My budget wouldn't let me stay overnight at that tall downtown hotel (the name escapes me, but it's pricey). I should've told the budget to bleep off.
This time I didn't even get to hear anything.
{voice of Lewis Black}: Running up to the porch (for the TV), [gritted teeth] and back to the front yard, [beat] like an idiot, while oblivious neighbors wondered what the hell my problem was. All I saw was a high-flying jumbo jet... with a red tail!. >:-(
As I try to console myself... At least I was physically closer than I've been before.... and I did get to see one docked to the ISS, as a little dot through the light pollution, when the news was good for something, once. :smirk:
Uh, I mean, that's pretty awesome...
Man, I'm feeling all, like, regionalistic now. :)
But I'd never mess with Texas, flashback. (A few friends and relatives back and forth).