Here’s our view of the space shuttle Atlantis launching last Friday for its last flight, STS-132. The videography might best be described as “earnest” rather than “excellent,” but it’s still a pretty fair approximation of the view we had. Except that everything in real life was brighter, and louder. And five days later, I still tingle when I think about it.
I actually wanted to cut that down a little more, but I got tired of the crappy video software crashing all the time, so I gave up and posted it the way it was.
My Launchpad Workshop and SF colleague Eugie Foster took a pretty neat video with her Android cellphone, and you can see that one one here:
And if you want to get away from the science fiction crowd experience and see what some folks with real equipment and skill took, here are a couple of the best that I found:
If you get a chance to see one of the last shuttle launches, don’t miss it!
Speaking of missing, if you missed my Sunborn video earlier, here’s another chance:
Anonymous
Nice! I've only gotten to Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center once, way back in 1980. I'm actually stopping at Port Canaveral as part of cruise on going on in November i'll have to try to make sure I get another tour that day, it's been way too long! – Marco
Jeffrey A. Carver
I regretted that we couldn't get to the KSC visitor center. I saw it just once, in the 1970s, and I know they've done great things with it since.
Joy
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for sharing such an amazing experience… Footage is very cool–and nice voice-over:)
~ Joy
Jeffrey A. Carver
Thanks, Joy — it really was an incredible experience.
Jeffrey
Great video, thank you! I really want to witness one of the final launches, however I doubt I'll be that lucky.
-Jeff Chin
Jeffrey A. Carver
Hey Jeff — Your dad just told me you're working at NASA. At Glenn Research Center? If you run into Geoff Landis (SF writer and rocket scientist), tell him you're a friend of mine. He's a good guy.
Jeffrey
I have met Geoff Landis! He gave a wonderful presentation to a handful of the interns. He also came to the intern poster presentations, but I never introduced myself. I will say "hi" next time I see him.
Jeffrey A. Carver
Definitely say hi to him. Geoff has actually given some pretty great presentations to his SF-writing colleagues on future space-propulsion technologies.