This… THIS is the photo I was waiting for. Thank you NASA and Bill Ingalls!

Space shuttle Enterprise, mounted atop a NASA 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), is seen off in the distance behind the Statue of Liberty, Friday, April 27, 2012, in New York. Enterprise was the first shuttle orbiter built for NASA performing test flights in the atmosphere and was incapable of spaceflight. Originally housed at the Smithsonian’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Enterprise will be demated from the SCA and placed on a barge that will eventually be moved by tugboat up the Hudson River to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in June. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

But wait, there’s more! My tweetup buddy David Parmet took this beauty:

Space Shuttle Enterprise flyover, photo by David Parmet

And Ben Cooper of LaunchPhotography.com captures Lady Liberty and the lower Manhattan skyline:

Enterprise flies over lower Manhattan, photo by Ben Cooper, launchphotography.com

For more interesting Enterprise/NYC shots, check out this collection at Gothamist, the NASA HQ photostream at Flickr, or check the #spottheshuttle hashtag on Twitter!

After the amazing photos taken during Discovery’s #SpottheShuttle flight to Washington, D.C., I’m very much looking forward to seeing what New York City viewers capture, as Enterprise migrates north this morning! (I’ll post an update with my favorites, later today.) For now, enjoy this awesome shot of the ferry 747′s stats, with Enterprise perched above and waiting….

The space shuttle Enterprise is seen mated on top of the NASA 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) at Washington Dulles International Airport, Saturday, April 21, 2012, in Sterling, Va. Painted graphics line the side of NASA 905 depicting the various ferry flights the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft has supported during the Space Shuttle Program, including the tests using the space shuttle prototype Enterprise. Space Shuttle Transition and Retirement engineers Saturday completed the final steps to ready Space Shuttle Enterprise for its flight to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport while managers continue to evaluate the expected weather that has postponed delivery past Monday. Enterprise, the first orbiter built for the Space Shuttle Program, was used primarily for ground and flight tests within the atmosphere. The initial testing period named Approach and Landing Test (ALT) included a flight on February 18, 1977 atop a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) to measure structural loads and ground handling and braking characteristics of the mated system. Enterprise will go on permanent display at the Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum in New York in June. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Space shuttle Discovery, on its way to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C., passes the moon one last time as it flies low over Edgewater Tuesday morning. Photo by Tim Wilson.

An orbiter took the scenic route Tuesday morning, as space shuttle Discovery made her way to Washington Dulles International Airport. Discovery will be installed at the National Air & Space Museum on Thursday. I thought this snippet of the above article put it well:

It was a sad day out at the Kennedy Space Center for those of us who’ve been around the shuttle program for a while. Sure, we know the ships stopped flying last year, but watching preparations for Discovery’s final flight — in the horizontal, not vertical orientation — was sobering.

“I almost feel like I’m at a funeral and there’s the hearse,” said one of my long-time space reporter pals, Bill Harwood, with CBS.

Space shuttle Discovery mounted atop a 747 shuttle carrier aircraft, flies by the Washington Monument during a flyover of the nation's capital on its final trip (Getty Images)

NASM and NASA promoted this fly-by event heavily, and Discovery flew over many DC landmarks before settling down at Dulles. Viewers were encouraged to “spot the shuttle” and post their images online. Here is a large collection of photos, both of the fly-by and of the crowds. The imagery is bittersweet, for me — I plan to visit Discovery in the future, but I think I’m glad I’m not there now. It does, indeed, feel like a funeral… or taxidermy.

Orbiter Discovery is carried on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft up and down the beaches of Brevard County as a farewell on her way to Washington D.C. and her new home at the National Air & Space Museum. Photo by Jen Scheer.

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.

Photo by Mikiya Takimoto

I guess I’m pretty nerdy for having instantly recognized this, even shrunk down on Pinterest, as a Space Shuttle Main Engine bell. Oh well. A beautiful photo by Mikiya Takimoto, from a summer 2011 show at MA2 Gallery, Tokyo.

Mikiya Takimoto travels both into down the mountain and up into space with his two series ‘Land’ and ‘Space,’ showing … at MA2 Gallery in Tokyo’s Ebisu district. The Space series took two years and 4 trips to the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, the Land series explores volcanic rock and mountain moss, to stunning effect.
— MOTHER

Some lovely concept art for your Friday, circa 1972! Image via x-ray delta one.

Launch day of STS-133, February 24, 2011. Photo by me.

0 Days to Launch!

It’s hard to believe it’s been a year already, but the calendar doesn’t lie: one year ago today, I was standing at the Kennedy Space Center press site, part of the STS-133 NASA Tweetup crowd, waiting to see if Discovery would launch.

It was a beautiful, clear day, and I was surrounded by wonderful people, many dear friends.

We listened to astronauts, watched as a mobile version of Astro Robonaut ran around the lawn (he mutated since we first saw him; I wonder what he’s been eating?), ate Ultimate Party Meatballs (courtesy of @TheSuss, and #BetaHouse), and milled around, soaking up the space ambiance….

And then the most wonderful thing happened.

This:

Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery - February 24, 2011

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….

Photograph © collectSPACE/Robert Z. Pearlman

Check out this fantastic photo gallery of space shuttle Atlantis during one of her final powered-up moments. I look at her, and all I can think is that she’s been nerfed. It’s sad.

Image Credit: Pat McCracken, NASA

This photo is fantastic, but you already knew that because now you’ve seen it. The subject says it all!

Why would the shadow of a space shuttle launch plume point toward the Moon? In early 2001 during a launch of Atlantis, the Sun, Earth, Moon, and rocket were all properly aligned for this photogenic coincidence. First, for the space shuttle’s plume to cast a long shadow, the time of day must be either near sunrise or sunset. Only then will the shadow be its longest and extend all the way to the horizon. Finally, during a Full Moon, the Sun and Moon are on opposite sides of the sky. Just after sunset, for example, the Sun is slightly below the horizon, and, in the other direction, the Moon is slightly above the horizon. Therefore, as Atlantis blasted off, just after sunset, its shadow projected away from the Sun toward the opposite horizon, where the Full Moon just happened to be.