Space Shuttle-upclose and personal

[Eksath]

To start the tread off, here are a few:

The captions have all the info:

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1504778/L/

http://www.airliners.net/photo/NASA/Rockwell-Space-Shuttle/1502566/L/ (http://www.airliners.net/photo/NASA/Rockwell-Space-Shuttle/1502566/L/)

http://www.airliners.net/photo/NASA/Rockwell-Space-Shuttle/1394537/L/ (http://www.airliners.net/photo/NASA/Rockwell-Space-Shuttle/1394537/L/)

[PhotosGuy]

Good ones.

[chris78cpr]

Nice shots Suresh.

Chris

[Jon Foster]

Wow. Those are awesome shots!

Jon.

[NicolasRubio]

Great as usual Suresh, glad to see you around here too!

[WRCfan]

Amazing pics. Would be a true treat to see a shuttle up this close!!

[RogerAylstock]

Suresh, you have the coolest shots!

[BDM]

That certainly is an impressive beast up close. it does look like it could use a paint job. Those are very nice pictures.

Bruce

[Eksath]

THanks guys!

Nicholas, good to be here too with other Canon shooters!

Here is one more recent one

http://www.airliners.net/photo/NASA/Rockwell-Space-Shuttle/1507759/L/ (http://www.airliners.net/photo/NASA/Rockwell-Space-Shuttle/1507759/L/)

I promise to pull some more from my reference library and post stuff unpublished before here shortly!

[12 Wyoming]

Wow! Good shot!

[dlr328]

I love this!! great work!! definitely subscribed...

[muscleflex]

nice shots! i so want to see it on its last launch in May!
i noticed your 2nd pic listed 1200 lens.... was that using a 2x? or you have the legendary 1200mm?

[sma65]

Very very nice shots.

[Eksath]

nice shots! i so want to see it on its last launch in May!
i noticed your 2nd pic listed 1200 lens.... was that using a 2x? or you have the legendary 1200mm?


Thanks!

I used a F/4 600mm lens with a 2X on it.

[Eksath]

One more...

http://www.airliners.net/photo/NASA/Rockwell-Space-Shuttle/1522333/L/

[Eksath]

Two pictures from STS 125 launch..with minimal edits. Heat haze was huge while she sat on pad and during her climb to the roll. The second shot is at start fo roll. Heat haze dropped off by hten.

[Eksath]

One more

http://www.airliners.net/photo/NASA/Rockwell-Space-Shuttle/1542905/L/

[Aviation Junkie]

Posting them as a.net approves them? Fantastic shots! The last one is a jaw dropper.

[NicolasRubio]

Nice shots Suresh!

I'll be there for the launch on February 4th, 2010... I hope you are there too so that you can show me around, LOL!

[izthistaken]

That one shot looks like it's made out of cardboard. :lol: Awesome man!

[Eksath]

A few more...


http://www.airliners.net/photo/NASA/Rockwell-Space-Shuttle/1546130/L/


and..

[RadAL]

Geez.. i am at a loss for words.

[Eksath]

Geez.. i am at a loss for words.

:cool:

THanks .. a few more

1.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/NASA/Rockwell-Space-Shuttle/1546295/L/


and 2 & 3:

[Eksath]

.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/NASA/Rockwell-Space-Shuttle/1547685/L/

and

.

[m3pj]

Great images, keep them coming!

[Eksath]

Great images, keep them coming!

http://www.airliners.net/photo/NASA/Rockwell-Space-Shuttle/1580444/L/ (http://www.airliners.net/photo/NASA/Rockwell-Space-Shuttle/1580444/L/)

More will follow.

[canonloader]

A great series of shots in this whole thread. I think our space shuttle program is the epitome of mans mechanical abilities, but I will be glad to see it go in favor of the next series of rides up.

[Klippie]

Amazing beautiful shots, here's a quick question how do the tyres not explode when the shuttle is in zero atmosphere...:?::?::?:

[Radders]

http://www.airliners.net/photo/NASA/Rockwell-Space-Shuttle/1580444/L/ (http://www.airliners.net/photo/NASA/Rockwell-Space-Shuttle/1580444/L/)

More will follow.

Your a lucky guy, I would love to come over and see this.

Fantastic photos:)

[gkarris]

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=376028&stc=1&d=1246149898
(gets intensely jealous..)

This one's my favorite.

Thanks so much for sharing these!

[Eksath]

One more to the list.


Atlantis being dropped off on the pad for upcoming mission. (http://www.airliners.net/photo/NASA/Rockwell-Space-Shuttle/1604345/L/)

[canonloader]

Did you happen to get any shots of "The Stick"?

[Eksath]

Did you happen to get any shots of "The Stick"?

see here

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=773057

[canonloader]

Ah, didn't see that. Great shot. I watched the launch on TV and it looked like it leaned over pretty far pretty fast, but apparently they know what they are doing. :)

I was wondering how they kept it vertical for the ride to the pad. Now I see the guy wires. :)

[gkarris]

Did you happen to get any shots of "The Stick"?

see here

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=773057

Oh, is that what it's called?

It does look simply like they took a Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster and put an updated Apollo Capsule up top... :eek:

[canonloader]

It does look simply like they took a Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster and put an updated Apollo Capsule up top
That's essentially what it is. The first stage is just a reworked shuttle booster. Tried and true.

[Eksath]

Ah, didn't see that. Great shot. I watched the launch on TV and it looked like it leaned over pretty far pretty fast, but apparently they know what they are doing. :)

I was wondering how they kept it vertical for the ride to the pad. Now I see the guy wires. :)


The guide wire is for the lightning protection system on the pad. It has nothing to do with the Ares 1-x. the rocket is held in place by 4 bolts at the bottem. These 4 bolts are blown by explosives a few milleseconds before launch. The shuttle is held by 8 bolts.

[gkarris]

That's essentially what it is. The first stage is just a reworked shuttle booster. Tried and true.

LOL... is it recoverable?

Well, I guess since "green" recycling is in... :D

[canonloader]

The guide wire is for the lightning protection system on the pad. It has nothing to do with the Ares 1-x. the rocket is held in place by 4 bolts at the bottem. These 4 bolts are blown by explosives a few milleseconds before launch. The shuttle is held by 8 bolts.
Amazing. It must be a really smooth ride on that crawler then. :)

They explained the booster on TV. It's a reworked ****tel booster. Among other things, it was contoured to take extra air speed. I guess it reaches higher speeds, lower in the atmosphere.

[Eksath]

LOL... is it recoverable?

Well, I guess since "green" recycling is in... :D

Even on the Shuttle Transport System, the only "lost" component is the External Tank. The SRBs ditch in the Atlantic and recovered,refurbished and flown again. Ofcourse, the orbiter is re launched too.

In the Ares 1-x, the components in the first stage had all previously flown on numerous shuttle mission hence were recycled multiple times.

So there is more than just recycling by design specs here.

[canonloader]

I wondered why, if it's all recycleable, they kept harping on the cost of this test mission. The news people kept bring up how NASA and the government did not know if the they would go ahead with it cause of cost. How could it possibly cost more than the shuttle?