haux Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 Last night, I got word that the space shuttle Discovery was going to fly from Edwards Air Force Base in California and stop in to Amarillo, Texas, where I live. I got up and went with a group of friends to the airport to catch a glimpse of the space shuttle piggybacking atop a modified 747. We were not disappointed. It's incredible. Because we work at the newspaper, we tagged along with a photographer and were given a little closer access to the plane/shuttle. No, we didn't get anywhere near it while it was refueling, but it did taxi by us maybe 50 feet away. That was amazing. I brought my Fujifilm FinePix F650 and an old Pentax Spotmatic II film SLR. I'm going to get the film developed tomorrow. If those shots turned out, I'll scan them and add them to this thread. Both my batteries on my digi died, and I only had two rolls of film, so I didn't get it taking off. But I have all these! And yours truly, a crazy guy. We were practically next to the taxiway as the 747 passed us to get to the end of the runway and take off. The lead plane takes off for Fort Worth, Texas. As the 747 gets ready to leave, the emergency vehicles leave. A bad picture of the film camera I was using. Staircase pulls up. Hundreds of people showed up to see it. The last time the shuttle was here was two years ago. It waited on a dog leg on the end of the runway. After this, we hopped in a car and drove along the road to get a closer view. NASA folks, though not the people who just returned from space. It nears the end of the runway. Ahhh! There it is! A fuel truck. A bunch of people came out of it. The tail of the lead plane. This is the lead plane. It landed about 15 minutes before the piggyback. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry_Gumball Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 Aircraft porn? No, really, a while back (early August) the Bay Area was able to see a space shuttle attached to a space station passing by around 9:30 at night, which lasted a minute. This event lasted about a week, and I was only able to catch it once as the fog had rolled in the rest of the week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrygator Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 Someone alert Chris Fourmont - This is the real Space Shuttle! I remember back in the early 80's looking up in the sky during an off season track practice and seeing the space shuttle piggybacked on a jet flying above. It was pretty cool to see. It had been announced in the newspaper the day before that that would be happening at a low enough altitude to see but I didn't consciously make an effort to view it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcjaco Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 Very cool! Years ago, I picked up a Matchbox 747/Shuttle combo die cast airplane set at Kennedy Space Center. As a kid I had no idea they did that, but the set caught my eye. I should dig it out, as I know I still have it somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 Thanks for sharing these pictures--very cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hobbit Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 Whow, it looks awesome. I made a trip to K Space Center. And it was great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BelizeIt Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 Excellent post! It must be amazing to see the Space Shuttle sitting on top of that 747 in person. I visited the Kennedy Space Center a few years back, and had a great time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coastinmiller Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 Awesome post. Wish I could have seen that in person. Thanks for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kennyweird Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 That's not exactly something you see everyday, thanks for sharing. Speaking of cool aircraft, I've seen quite a bit of military aircraft flying around here recently, I'm guessing they have something to do with the G20 summit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_teisco_delrey Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 Great shots! I hope I get to see a blast off before the shuttle stops flying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paintballer Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 That just flew over my house about 200 feet up yesterday afternoon after leaving Carswell AFB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hotlanta Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 Awesome TR. I was in Amarillo until last week visiting my sister and would have loved to seen this while there. For a small town airport AMA has a lot of classics lying around as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dandaman Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 Funny that this shuttle seems to be getting a lot of coverage... it's the first one I'd ever seen launch. (At night, to boot!) Thanks for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 Man that thing gets a bit battered on re-entry! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRapidsNerd Posted September 24, 2009 Share Posted September 24, 2009 You, my friend, were very fortunate to get so close. Some great shots! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted September 24, 2009 Share Posted September 24, 2009 Poor Nasa, it seems like they've had to land out in California a lot lately. And I remember it costing some ridiculous figure to get the shuttle back to Florida. It's cool though when it lands out here, especially when we forget that it is landing out here because our whole building shakes with the Sonic Boom as it comes nearby! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dandaman Posted September 24, 2009 Share Posted September 24, 2009 ^NASA's figure was around $1.7 million, but I'd imagine there's quite a few extras not factored in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiSab Posted September 24, 2009 Share Posted September 24, 2009 Very cool. Not often you see something like that. I'd love to see that in person sometime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haux Posted September 25, 2009 Author Share Posted September 25, 2009 ^NASA's figure was around $1.7 million, but I'd imagine there's quite a few extras not factored in. One of our reporters talked to someone who said it costs around $40 million to fly it from California back to Florida. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lil jimmy norton Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 Wow, that must be a fantastic sight to see. Although, the space shuttle kind of looks like the 747's retarded siamese twin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squid Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 According to my father in law, the cost is under $2 million. The reason I bring him up is that he works for NASA as a senior engineer. Basically, if you see something dealing with NASA that's yellow and looks like metal, he either designed it, built it, or approved it. He's also a theme park fan, and so is his daughter. Lucky me! Squid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gisco Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 Nice pictures. Waaaaay back in the 80's I used to work in the Launch Center for the shuttle. I miss those days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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