STS-136

fuckyeahspaceshuttle:

Final Approach

Columbia approaches touchdown on Runway 33 of Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility to complete the nearly 16-day STS-90 mission. Framed by Florida foliage and wetlands, this unique view was taken from the roof of the 525-foot-high Vehicle Assembly Building. 

kaiyves:

temporallydisplacedrocketman:

spaceandstuffidk:

Retro Space Images: “Space Shuttle Enterprise is shown at Pad 39A in 1979. Photo courtesy of the Usciak Collection.”

awwww yeaaahhh Enterprise yeaaahhh

I’ve never seen this fit check from this angle before. Me gustaaaa.

Enterprise!

I will visit you when I get home in August and hopefully Erin will be there, too.

asonlynasacan:

gameoficeandfire:

lightthiscandle:

spacewatching:

After completing it’s first orbital mission with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base on April 14, 1981, Space Shuttle Columbia received a humorous sendoff before it’s ferry flight atop a modified 747 back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Holding the sign are, left to right: Melvin Burke, DFRC Orbital Flight Test (OFT) Program Manager; Isaac ‘Ike’ Gillam, DFRC Center Director; Fitzhugh ‘Fitz’ L. Fulton Jr., NASA DFRC 747 SCA Pilot; and Donald K. ‘Deke’ Slayton, JSC OFT Project Manager.

Congrats, Deke, you’ve just won Publishers’ Clearinghouse! What will you do with your money?

Why are they holding this like it’s contaminated?

Yeah, I noticed that too.

Slayton: Shit. Damn. Guys, don’t get too close. That one dude had pink eye last week. I would be goddamned upset to get it.

Why does my version of Deke cuss a lot? Well, because real Deke cussed a lot.

The magnificent shuttle!

I am proud to be part of a species where a subset of it’s members willingly put their lives at risk to push the boundaries of our existence.

- Neil deGrasse Tyson

Pretty awesome picture and message, even though it’s not actually a picture of Challenger.

unknownskywalker:

Atlantis’ last undocking

This picture of the space shuttle Atlantis was photographed from the International Space Station as the orbiting complex and the shuttle performed their relative separation in the early hours of July 19, 2011 after completing the STS-135 mission.

(Source: thebestandonly1)

yeahspace:

Astronaut Koichi Wakata Trains for Spacewalk

JSC2012-E-048077 (22 March 2012) —- Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata, Expedition 38 flight engineer and Expedition 39 commander, is submerged in the waters of the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) near NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Divers (out of frame) are in the water to assist Wakata in his rehearsal, which is intended to help prepare him for work on the exterior of the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA

(Source: perelandra)

It’s sad that we will never get to see this again.

(Source: thebestandonly1)

exterum:

STS-131 by Zack Hughes on Flickr.

(Source: inspirens)