After nearly 4 months of delays Space Shuttle Discovery blasted off on it’s 39th and final mission. It’s always exciting to photograph a shuttle launch, not just because of the cool factor but because of the historic moment us as photographers are capturing.  As the shuttle program comes to an end many people are flocking to KSC to get an opportunity to photograph a shuttle launch before Atlantis lifts off in June 2011.  If you think photographing the shuttle is easy consider this.. you must arrive at the media site many hours in advance of the launch to make sure you get a good spot.  Once you get to the press site there are about 200 photographers from all over the world, some friendly.. some not.  Then you wait… and wait.. and wait.. in the hot Florida sun. Luckily it was actually great weather, not too hot it felt really nice. I think one of the cool things about a launch are the people you get to meet, you may see astronauts, senators ( I saw Senator Bill Nelson) former employees and other VIPS who stop by the media area for interviews. I had the chance to talk with a great guy who retired after 40 yrs of service to NASA he has been at every launch and was responsible for some pretty important stuff. I chatted with him for about 2 hours as we waited for launch, the stories he shared with me were amazing he should really write a book! He was such a great guy, he really made time fly as we chatted.  If you want to know more about Space Shuttle Discovery read below, if not scroll down for some pics.. thanks for visiting!

Here is some info from NASA:

Discovery was NASA’s third space shuttle orbiter to join the fleet at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Discovery also is known inside the space agency by its designation Orbiter Vehicle-103, or OV-103. Construction of Discovery began on Aug. 27, 1979 and was completed four years later. Discovery rolled out of the assembly plant building in Palmdale, Calif., October 1983 and was first launched Aug. 30, 1984. When first flown, Discovery became the third operational orbiter, and it currently is the oldest orbiter in service.
It was named after two historic, Earth-bound exploring ships of the past. One was a vessel used by Henry Hudson in the early 1600s to explore the Hudson Bay and search for a northwest passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The other was one of two ships used by the British explorer James Cook in the 1770s. Cook’s voyages in the South Pacific led to the discovery of the Hawaiian Islands. Another of his ships was the Endeavour, the namesake of NASA’s newest shuttle. Discovery has had many notable flights and was the Return to Flight shuttle following both the Challenger and Columbia accidents. Discovery is targeted to liftoff on its final mission, STS-133, on Nov. 1, 2010. It will be the first space shuttle retired from NASA’s fleet.

KEY DISCOVERY MISSIONS
STS-41D – Maiden Flight
STS-26 – Return to Flight after Challenger accident
STS-31 – Launch of Hubble Space Telescope
STS-60 – First flight of a Russian cosmonaut on a shuttle
STS-63 – First Mir rendezvous; first female pilot
STS-70 – First on-orbit shift in new Mission Control Center
STS-82 – Highest altitude known for a shuttle flight
STS-91 – Final shuttle-Mir docking
STS-95 – Flight to return John Glenn to orbit as oldest human to fly in space
STS-92 – Installation of the Z1 Integrated Truss Structure and PMA-3 to the International Space Station
STS-102 – First ISS crew rotation
STS-114 – Return to Flight after Columbia accident
STS-116 – P5 Truss installed
STS-124 – Delivery of Japan’s Kibo Laboratory to ISS
STS-119 – Completed ISS Integrated Truss Segment
STS-128 – Final use of the shuttle for full ISS crew rotation

THE NUMBERS
(Prior to STS-133)
Total miles traveled: 142,917,535
Total days in orbit: 351
(8,441 hours, 50 minutes, 41 seconds)
Total orbits: 5,628
Total flights: 38
Total crew members: 246
Mir dockings: 1
International Space Station
dockings: 12

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As you may already know I’m a bit of a space nerd, so when I got a chance to shoot Space Shuttle Discovery during it’s final rollout from the massive Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) I was excited. I have already photographed a few launches and been out to the pad but at the very closest I was still about a mile away from the orbiter. Discovery was rolled back to the VAB after cracks in the external fuel tank were found. Nearly five weeks later Discovery made its (hopefully) last trip to launch pad 39-A scheduled to blastoff on Feb 24th.

The VAB is huge here are some stats:

The VAB covers 8 acres. It is 160 meters (525 ft) tall, 218 meters (716 ft) long and 158 meters (518 ft) wide. It encloses 3,664,883 cubic meters (129,428,000 cubic feet) of space

• Flag & Bicentennial Emblem: Added in 1976, required 6,000 gallons of paint. The flag is 64 x 33.5 meters (209 x 110 ft) in size. Each strip on the flag is as big as the tour buses used to transport visitors around KSC
• Steel: 89,421 metric tons (98,590 tons)
• Concrete: 49,696 cubic meters (65,000 cubic yards)
• Piling: 4,225 open-end steel pipe piles, 0.4 meters (16 inchs) in diameter were driven 49 meters (160 ft) into bedrock.
• Air Conditioning: 9,070 metric tons (10,000 tons), 125 ventilators.
• Lifting Devices: 71 cranes; two 227 metric ton (250 ton) bridge cranes.
• Siding: 100,800 sq meters (1,085,000 sq ft) insulated aluminum panels; 6,503 sq meters (70,000 sq ft) plastic panels.
• Doors: There are 4 High Bay doors. Each opening is 139 meters (456 ft) high. The north entry to the transfer aisle was widened 12.2 meters (40ft) to permit entry of the Orbiter, and slotted at the center to accommodate its vertical stabilizer.

Comparisons:

• Height: VAB – 160meters (525 ft) <–> Statue of Liberty – 93 meters (305 ft)
• Volume: VAB – 3,665,013 cu meters (129,428,000 cub ft) <–> Pentagon 2,181,117 cu meters (77,025,000 cu ft).
• VAB equals 3.75 Empire State Buildings

Needless to say it is a very cool experience to be in one of the world’s largest buildings and i’m glad to have had the opportunity. Now as large as the space shuttle is, with its solid rocket boosters and huge external fuel tank it looks small inside the VAB. For some scale, the high angle photos were taken from the 16th floor of the VAB on a platform (VAB has 52 floors) and I was nearly at the top of the external fuel tank.

I am looking forward to being at the launch on Feb 24th.. enough talking, here are some photos!