Especially the close-ups.

How lucky for all of you, and especially your three year old!

He may even remember seeing it, esp. since these pictures were taken!

your three year old will be able to look back on these and say "I was there"

cool

I wouldn't have considered what it even looked like, very interesting.

Give your wife a round of applause. What a wonderful experience for you and your son. Thanks for sharing it.

Glad you got to see the last flyby. Historical!

Do you want to expose your three-year-old child to such things?



But, really, very cool photos.

Hi,
I hope to see it after it gets ready for exhibit at the Smithsonian. Saw one once on the launch pad once, it was awesome just sitting there. Your pictures are great, must have been awfully impressive.

Peace

THANKS, EarlG and family!

Your days of flight are over but you will now send generations of children's imaginations soaring.

Great pics!

Thanks for sharing your family outing with us!!

I saw the Enterprise in Atlanta back in the 70s. You have to see it in person to realize how big it is.

Your kid is so lucky.

When I was but a lad, I couldn't get enough of the space program. Back then it was Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. I'd convince my mother to let me "stay home sick" on the day of a launch so I could watch it on TV....grainy-ass black & white, usually with Walter Cronkite on lead vocals and Chris Craft in Mission Control. The night of the first Moon landing, I stayed up with a friend and watched it.

My dad, rest his soul, was also sort of a space nut, an avid reader and small-time astronomer. He turned me on to sci-fi novels growing up, and used to say that if NASA had had the Army's budget, we'd have had a colony on Mars by 1987. Something to do with such arcanum as "societal momentum", the post-Vietnam "peace dividend" and the relative proximity of the two planets allowing for an economical flight trajectory.

I digress. I love the pics, and am really glad you got to actually see it. A little piece of history...or, as Walter used to say to who-knows-how-many schoolkids back in the day:

"It was a day like any other day, filled with the events that mold and shape our lives, except-- you were there."

In the late 1980's and early 1990's, the shuttle would sometimes stop
in Tucson, if it had landed in California.

Sometime, I'll have to post my pics of the Space Shuttle Enterprise, taken in Huntsville, AL in the late 1970s. It was the shuttle that was tested for gliding (launched from the jet airplane which was carrying it). The shuttle is actually quite small. However, the main solid rocket booster was HUGE!

Thanks for the pictures. I can't wait for the next generation space vehicle to be developed and flown by NASA!

they have lots of shots including the hoist to put it on and the scaffolding used to secure it to the 747.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2130979/Space-Shuttle-Discovery-performs-flyover-D-C-jumbo-jet-retirement-Smithsonian.html

thanks for sharing.

I had the privilege of watching 2 launches. Miss those shuttles. Despite the problems, they were pretty damned awesome!

Thanks for posting.

I am so freakin' jealous !! Thanks for posting those.