Final Call for Space Shuttle Atlantis

Yesterday was the final flight for the Space Shuttle Atlantis, which launched at 2:20 p.m. on its way to the International Space Station. I went outside with my very curious 4-year-old to take some pictures and hopefully imprint another shuttle launch into his memory before the program ends for good later this year. I hope he's old enough to one day have distant memories of dashing out into his backyard as a child to watch a light and smoke trail ascend into the sky.

It was a beautiful clear day to watch the launch and I was determined to have my camera on the right settings this time around. I brought out the video camera, my SLR camera on a tripod, and the iPhone so my budding photographer could take his own photos of the launch. I also brought out a ladder so he could get the perfect vantage point.

This video with his commentary is priceless. My videography skills are crap because I was concentrating on taking photos, making sure the dogs didn't knock over my camera and making sure he didn't fall off the ladder. Look past my footage and listen to how excited he is.



I got some really nice clear photos of the launch, albeit not much different than previous daytime launch photos I've taken from the same spot looking East from our back yard.


Then I decided to get a pic of the kid taking his own photos of the launch.


And here is one of his photos.


Not bad for a 4-year-old, huh? There I am perched with a digital SLR on a tripod and he snaps a perfect shot with my camera phone.

There are only two launches left - unless the shuttle program gets some sort of last minute reprieve - and I'll do my best to get my boys outside to watch them both. (That older boy of mine got to watch this one from his Elementary school - no fear!)

Final Nighttime Space Shuttle Launch photos!

We got up about 10 minutes early today to dash out into the backyard and watch the Space Shuttle Discovery take off at 6:21 a.m. I love night launches because the sky goes from a dark black to a brilliant orange in the blink of an eye. Granted this was a sunrise launch, but the shuttle lifted off a few minutes before the sun rose so we still got the benefit of a night launch. I read that this was the last night launch scheduled for the shuttle program, so I didn't want to miss it.

My oldest son was all geeked up to watch it too, so I woke him up and we dashed out in the backyard with a flashlight and a camera and looked East. I realized at about that moment that I did not have the camera on the right setting and wouldn’t be able to find the correct setting in about 5 seconds in the dark with a flashlight. I knew the photos wouldn't look very good, but I took them regardless and tried to focus on enjoying the experience, especially through my son's eyes.

When we look East we walk to our back fence and can see our neighbor's house, which is usually pretty hard to see from our house. We're a straight shot to the space coast so the shuttle launches are quite an experience, no matter how many times you see it go up.

Here are the photos (on the wrong setting) that are blurry and off, but it's better than having none at all. I will have the tripod and the right settings for the final launches, I assure you.










It was a quiet, still morning so a few seconds after the shuttle took off we could hear and feel the low, loud rumble of the rockets. We put our hands on our wooden fence to feel the vibration and my son was impressed by that. We watched the two solid rocket boosters fall from the shuttle and we were fascinated by the strange vapor trail-type thing in that last photo. (Farmer B said to Aidan, "Look, they just released the boosters. Can you see them falling in the sky?" Aidan says "WHAT? they released their boosters??? What will they sit on if they got rid of their boosters???")

My son recently had a NASA employee speak to his kindergarten class and he told me that the man said they use a chicken egg to train people. Apparently to use one of the robotic arms they have to successfully pick up a chicken egg and move it without breaking it to pass the test. He wasn't sure if it was ground workers who retrieve the SRB's from the ocean or if it was astronauts in space, but regardless he liked that story since we have chickens - and eggs - in our backyard.

As the shuttle was launching, Farmer B and I really tried to impress upon him the awesomeness of what he was witnessing - that there are only three shuttle missions remaining and then the whole program is ending; that children all over the world would love to be as lucky as him and be able to see the shuttle take off from a vantage point in their own back yard; and of course how brave the astronauts are that are hurtling to space at over 17,000 mph.

This shuttle mission is going to the International Space Station to carry supplies and science equipment and will return to Earth in 13 days on April 18 at 8:35 a.m. It was a strange feeling knowing we'll never see the sky light up orange from the night launch of a space shuttle ever again.

I can't imagine how busy the space coast will be for the final three launches. We'll be camped out in our backyard (if the timing is right) and will try and capture all three of them on film and hopefully in the memories of our boys who will one day be able to tell their children about this.

To see some past entries with shuttle launch photos, click here.

A cloudy shuttle launch

I wandered outside today to catch the launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis. It is NASA's last shuttle flight of the year and one of only six remaining. The shuttle will return to Earth the day after Thanksgiving, bringing home a seventh astronaut who has been living at the space station since the end of August.



I figure since there are only a handful of launches remaining I should try and photograph as many of them as I can. Wouldn't you know that today there were two big fat clouds right between us and the shuttle? So typical of my luck. I only got a couple of glimpses of it between the clouds - even the rumble of the rockets was quite muted today. But I'll take this anytime considering most of the rest of the world will go a lifetime and never see one.

(If you'd like to see more pictures of shuttle launches from our neck o' the woods, click here)

Chickens in Space!

Okay, the title was a bit misleading. I researched the animal astronaut files on the NASA website and there don't appear to have been any chicken astronauts. Mice, frogs, dogs, monkeys, newts, turtles, chimpanzees and even a stray French cat, but no chickens. Clearly NASA shows a slight prejudice to our favorite egg-producing yard fowl, which is a shame. Wouldn’t it be interesting to know if a chicken can lay an egg in space? And if so, is that egg edible? Maybe I'm the only person who ponders these things - clearly no one at NASA has.

This all came up because the Space Shuttle Endeavor finally took off yesterday after a month of delays on its journey to the International Space Station. The boys were less than enthused to stand outside at 6 p.m. and watch it because a) they were convinced it wouldn't go up again and b) dinner was on the table and they both professed to be starving. But it did go up and Clementine watched it with us. I'm not sure she was as impressed as a chicken should be witnessing her first shuttle launch, but at least she got to experience it.


And I got a photo of a chicken watching the space shuttle go up.

However, it was the most boring launch we've ever witnessed. The sky was bright, hazy, and cloudy and the conditions were not favorable for good visibility. Oddly enough the wind must have been blowing the right way because we heard the shuttle go up, which doesn't happen too often. The loud roar of the engines rumbled through our back yard soon after take-off.

And because of the crappy viewing conditions, I did have to take the photo into Photoshop and "blue up" the sky a bit so that you could make out the tiny dot that is the space shuttle. It's not my best work, but it does help you to see where the shuttle trajectory falls from our viewpoint.

Compare that daytime launch photo with the two sets of night launch photos I posted on the blog for previous missions. Big difference huh?

The other launch photos might have been more spectacular, but this photo did have a chicken watching the launch. I wonder how many people can say THAT?

Sunset Shuttle Launch

Whenever I talk to my friends who live elsewhere and see their pictures of gorgeous snow-covered mountains or beautiful canyon scenes, I'm quick to complain that there isn't much to see in Florida. Once you've seen the beach, we're all about strip malls and swamps. But then it's time for another launch from the Cape and while the world watches on TV, we merely walk into the backyard to experience the whole thing live.

A launch looks completely different depending on the time of day. We've seen them all from night launches, to day launches to Saturn and Atlas rockets and, of course, last night's sunset launch. We even drove over to the coast once to see a launch close-up.

Sunset launches are great because the sun's rays reflect sunset colors in the smoke trail behind the shuttle. On a rare occasion, if it's a clear day and the wind is blowing the right way we can even hear the low rumble of rockets upon take-off.

At about 7:40 pm last night we all wandered into the back yard and looked East over our back fence. The boys were in their pajamas ready for bed and were more excited at staying up a few minutes later than usual than actually seeing the shuttle. At 7:43 pm the space shuttle Discovery lifted off with six astronauts on board on a mission to the international space station.

The first thing we see is a small white light appear low in the sky. It goes up and to the left and is easy to see by the large smoke trail behind it. After a few minutes you can clearly see the two solid rocket boosters seperate and descend to the earth. After that you can watch the shuttle getting smaller and smaller until it disappears into orbit.

(If you click on this photo to make it larger you can just see the SRBs falling away from the shuttle. It's the two white dots under the brighter dot)

Then we all go back inside and rewind the DVR to watch the shuttle life-off again on the TV. After that my little pajama-wearing boys head off to bed without realizing how lucky they are to witness this from their own back yard.

Night Launch

I know this is a gardening blog, but it's my gardening blog so I give myself the right to go completely off-topic should the mood strike me. Since I'm mood stricken right now, I thought I'd post some photos of last night's space shuttle launch…after all, we were standing next to our garden when we watched it, so I'm calling it garden related.

The Space Shuttle Endeavor lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center at 7:55 p.m. on November 14th. Our family is famous for forgetting to watch shuttle launches, but honestly, when you live in Florida it is easy to forget since it's a way of life for us. We were determined not to forget last night's launch because there is just something special about a night launch. No matter how many launches you see, it's always just an amazing moment when you first peer out of the backyard and see the glow of the burners and know that seven very gutsy astronauts are hurtling toward space at about 18,000 mph.

Ever since I was a kid and I stood outside of my school with my class watching the Challenger take off with teacher Christa McAullife on board and it blew up, I always get a bit nervous watching a shuttle take off. I always try to imagine how scary it must be for the astronauts inside and I think of how odd it is that most of the country is inside watching Wheel of Fortune while this amazing thing is happening right outside of my window.

We had the boys dressed in their PJs ready for bed and we all walked out into the backyard and looked East.
The moon was hidden behind the clouds at first and it was a very dark night We're very close to the coast so we always get a great view. It's much harder to find the shuttle in the daytime, especially if there are low clouds. But a night launch is totally different. You stand there in the darkness waiting for the glow and then it happens - a bright orange glow lights up the sky starting at the horizon and quickly filling the night. If you're inside you can see the orange glow light up your windows. Photos really do not do it justice. We were lucky enough to have a full moon, which made for a very beautiful night.
The bright orange glow sort of arcs up into the sky and the clouds get really bright and you focus on the bright yellow glow of the shuttle. If the wind is blowing in the right direction, you can hear the rumble of the rockets. Last night we heard someone blaring Elton John's "Rocket Man" from some speakers at a party up the street. No matter where you are you always hear people clapping. There is something so spectacular about it that you feel the need to clap or cheer when you first see it over the horizon. But soon after you hear a quiet silence as people old enough to remember the Challenger suck in a collective nervous breath in the hopes that nothing will go wrong. As you watch, the bright white plume of smoke off the shuttle's tail follows the ball of fire as it lifts up into the sky.
It's impossible to photograph from a home camera, but when the shuttle gets quite high in the sky you can watch the solid rocket boosters separate from the shuttle and fall back to the Earth. The shuttle eventually becomes a tiny white speck and you're left watching what's left of the smoke trail fading in the night sky. Eventually the sky darkens again and it's all over. Then we all raced back inside and hit rewind on the TV and watched it all over again.
I love that our boys can experience this. One day when they're old and grey they'll be able to tell their grandchildren about watching the space shuttle take off right from their own back yard. I'm sure space shuttles will be obsolete old-fashioned pictures in a history book by then - just like the rockets from the 1960s are to us now. But I'm glad they get to experience this part of history first-hand with Farmer B and I at their side.