I’ve always loved night landings (and night photography. Who cares if it’s grainy?) This one is from STS-123, four years ago this week.

As night falls on NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Space Shuttle Endeavour touches down on Runway 15 at the Shuttle Landing Facility to end the STS-123 mission, a 16-day flight to the International Space Station. Onboard are NASA astronauts Dominic Gorie, commander; Gregory H. Johnson, pilot; Robert L. Behnken, Mike Foreman, Rick Linnehan and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Takao Doi, all mission specialists. The main landing gear touched down at 8:39:08 p.m. (EDT) on March 26, 2008. The nose landing gear touched down at 8:39:17 p.m. and wheel stop was at 8:40:41 p.m. The mission completed nearly 6.6 million miles. The landing was on the second opportunity after the first was waved off due to unstable weather in the Kennedy Space Center area. The STS-123 mission delivered the first segment of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kibo laboratory and the Canadian Space Agency’s two-armed robotic system, known as Dextre.

Saw this image on Twitter yesterday: STS-3 Columbia landing at White Sands, New Mexico. Very cool picture! Not sure where the original image came from, but I’m sure it’s buried in the NASA media archives somewhere….

Well… this is it. Get your fill of landing (and launch!) photos here. The landing was beautiful… and sad, very sad. The thing with perhaps the most sustained influence on my life, is over today.

Goodbye, Space Shuttle, and thank you.

Photo credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

I choked up as I watched space shuttle Discovery land this morning, and wept as I heard Commander Lindsey say, “Houston, Discovery. For the final time, wheelstop.” Discovery had 27 years of service, 39 flights, traveling 148,221,675 miles. She made 5,830 orbits of Earth, with a total of 365 days in space. She took us back into space after the loss of Challenger and Columbia, and served us faithfully.

Godspeed, Discovery.

Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

As sad as I am to see the end of @Astro_Soichi‘s wonderful orbital photography, welcome home to the crew of ISS Expedition 23! (Presented for your approval, a terrific photo by Bill Ingalls.)

The Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 23 Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineers T.J. Creamer and Soichi Noguchi near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, June 2, 2010. NASA Astronaut Creamer, Russian Cosmonaut Kotov and Japanese Astronaut Noguchi are returning from six months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 22 and 23 crews.

Photo credit: NASA/Tony Gray and Tom Farrar

I admit, I download every launch and landing photo from KSC Media Archive, every shuttle mission. I have for some time. It’s gotten to the point where I can tell if they’re not done uploading the pictures to the gallery yet, because this or that angle is missing. Yes, I’m admitting just how nerdy I am, shut up with the laughing already. I’m not about to tell you “it all looks the same”, but there are recognizable angles, camera locations, etc. When a NEW view appears, like the landing photo above, I’m thrilled to bits!

Sadly, this may very well be Atlantis’ last mission. All good things come to an end… still, I root for her, that she might have one last hurrah with the spare ET/SRBs we’ll have left over. Time will tell!

Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

Photo credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now

My favorite picks from yesterday’s landing photos, courtesy of the KSC Media Archive, Spaceflight Now and Flying Jenny.

Photo Credit: Jen Scheer (@flyingjenny)

Photo credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now

Photo Credit: Jen Scheer (@flyingjenny)

Photo Credit: NASA/Rusty Backer

^ I’d have a hard time picking a favorite from the NASA photos because there’s so many. (I’m always a tiny bit sad when the landing gets switched to Edwards AFB, as they don’t take nearly as many/good pictures and as we all know, I am a picture hoarder.)

Shuttle Discovery landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California on Friday, ending a successful mission to the International Space Station. (Edwards doesn’t take as many landing photos as KSC does, so here’s what I’ve got.)

It’s time for LANDINGSPAM. All STS-127, ALL POST. (Landing occurred this morning, by the by.)