Pictures of Endeavor

[Fullboogie]

The 747 piggybacking the space shuttle Endeavor just circled over my place of work (we're a mile or so from NASA). Enjoy the pics:

 

[69Mach1-409]

Neat!

 

[Juiced 66]

Awesome pics !

 

[Juiced 66]

It still sucks that Houston isnt getting a real shuttle.

 

[BadHabit2Break]

nice pics!

 

[Jarrod@latemodelresto]

Bad ass. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

 

[captainN8]

Great pics! I live near San Jacinto monument, so I decided to drive up there since I am off today. Here are mine.

 

[captainN8]

It still sucks that Houston isnt getting a real shuttle.

I say we lock it down here, screw Cali. What they gonna do? Come and get it? Just tell them it's coming and never bring it, LOL.

 

[bigray327]

It's Endeavour. All of the Orbiters were named after British ships of exploration. I'm proud to say that 15 of my 17 years at NASA, so far, were working for the Shuttle Program. I miss it a lot.

We pulled some strings and brought my volunteer fire department's trucks inside the gates at Ellington today, right onto the flight line, and got to go right up under the SCA. Here are a few pics...



Video of one of the passes from the parking lot outside my office at Johnson Space Center...

 

[captainN8]

^^ Awesome.

It woke me up when it took off this morning flew right over my house(sounded like they stayed nice and low), wish I could have seen it.

I geek out not only on space stuff, but aviation anything.

These are some of the biggest things that have made the U.S. so great, and Obummer has just taken a big dump on the NASA folks. My family was affected by that layoffs as well, my grandpa had worked out there as a contractor.

 

[weather man]

Sweet!

 

[Meikol02]

Great pics. I got some too as it flew over JSC. If I had been a few minutes earlier to work this am, I would have grabbed a few from the final fly over downtown. Freeway pics are not very good...

 

[bigray327]

It woke me up when it took off this morning flew right over my house(sounded like they stayed nice and low),

They don't do that on purpose; they don't have much choice in the matter. The Orbiter on the back of the 747 makes no lift until they get to cruising speed, so it's hard to take off and land. Furthermore, the center of gravity being much higher causes problems with banks more than 20 degrees, so what you're seeing is NOT EASY.

 

[captainN8]

They don't do that on purpose; they don't have much choice in the matter. The Orbiter on the back of the 747 makes no lift until they get to cruising speed, so it's hard to take off and land. Furthermore, the center of gravity being much higher causes problems with banks more than 20 degrees, so what you're seeing is NOT EASY.

Hey, I'm a private pilot, I don't mind at all, I'm like a little kid at Christmas around aircraft. Haha

 

[Fullboogie]

It's Endeavour. All of the Orbiters were named after British ships of exploration.

Except, of course, the Enterprise, which was named after Captain Kirk's kickass ride.

 

[Doug M]

Cool!

 

[bigray327]

Except, of course, the Enterprise, which was named after Captain Kirk's kickass ride.

Wrong. That was convenient.

 

[Fullboogie]

It was actually due to a massive write-in campaign, and it was based on the Enterprise in Star Trek. At least, that's the story on a NASA documentary I saw on the tube.

 

[bigray327]

It was actually due to a massive write-in campaign, and it was based on the Enterprise in Star Trek. At least, that's the story on a NASA documentary I saw on the tube.

Actually, Dave, you will never have to school me on anything related to the Space Shuttle, the vehicle to which I devoted 15 years of my professional career.

NASA does things to appease the public, like the naming of the Space Station treadmill after Steve Colbert. OV-101 was originally named after another 18th century British sailing vessel (HMS Constitution). When the nerds suggested Enterprise, it was an acceptable compromise that made the public happy while still fitting the naming convention... except, of course, for the spelling difference (in some historical circles). Had they not been so shortsighted, they could have had one that actually went into space named after the starship. At the time, they didn't know five flying Orbiters would be built, though; two of them were added to the fleet after Challenger was lost.

 

[Fullboogie]

Cool - so I was right. It was named after the photon torpedo-spewing Enterprise on Star Trek. LONG LIVE CAPTAIN KIRK AND THE SPACE SHUTTLE ENTERPRISE!