the aesthetic of lostness

Former NASA astronaut Bill Shepherd, the very first commander of the International Space Station, was presented with the Honorary Naval Aviator award during a ceremony last Friday morning at the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Fla. In this photo a pair of gold wings are being pinned on him.

As one star field of light was snuffed out forever, another came alight:

Less than 10 minutes after the final power down of the Space Shuttle program, astronaut Mark Kelly, the commander of Endeavour’s STS-134 mission, stepped up to the podium as a guest speaker at the commissioning of the National Flight Academy’s USS Ambition CVT-11. The National Flight Academy was established to give secondary school students a chance to experience life aboard a Navy aircraft carrier and learn to fly simulated missions of a next-generation fighter aircraft. Many of those students are expected to come away from the ‘space camp’ for aviators inspired to pursue careers in STEM fields — and no doubt a few will grow up to become astronauts themselves.

At 8:58 a.m. CT on Friday, May 11, the last of the ‘operational’ Space Shuttles was powered down for the final time. While Endeavour is now forever dark, I had the once-in-a-lifetime chance to stand upon the flight deck of the space-faring orbiter while she was powered up the prior week. It was a memorable day whose images will forever be a part of me.

This is how my Friday morning began — standing in the background and listening to Gene Cernan and Mark Kelly swap astronaut stories while waiting to do a TV interview promoting the commissioning of the National Flight Academy that same morning. I would later meet both of them individually and have a brief conversation with each.

An American flag which was flown to the surface of the moon and returned aboard Apollo 14 is expected to be one of the most sought-after items at this weekend’s Space Exploration Signature Auction being conducted by Heritage Auctions in Dallas, Texas.

Read the entire story at Examiner.com.

The rarest of rare days happened this morning: Cloud cover created near perfect lighting for the Blue Angels as they soared over the house. I even saw the Blues disappear and reappear through clouds several times as they zoom-zoom-zoomed above the tree tops. And, oh yeah, a bird briefly joined their ranks - or maybe the bird was playing chicken with the Blues. 

See more pics from this morning’s practice above the skies of Pensacola at my public Facebook album.

Privileged to have been among the last 10 members of the public to have ever stood upon the flightdeck of Space Shuttle while she was powered up last week. Endeavour will be powered down for the very final time this Friday before heading to Los Angeles later this year to be placed on permanent display at the California Science Center.

See more pictures and read about the end-of-the-line for the Space Shuttle at AmericaSpace.org.

So this is what a RTLS abort for the Space Shuttle would’ve looked like. Pretty impressive model rocketry.

Today is as good as any to share some memories of Discovery. Why not take a peek at the now-retired ‘Workhorse of Space’ back when she was still a working spacecraft. http://wp.me/p1YCNG-4AM