The last space shuttle flight

Sometime in November, Endeavour will be the last shuttle to be launched into space from sunny Florida.  For almost all of us, these flights have become so routine and ordinary that they have become background noise.

Though I grew up living a few hours away from Edwards Air Force Base, where most of the shuttle landings took place in the 1980s, I never got to see it.  Now, with just two flights left, I imagine a lot of people are making plans to visit Florida.  To save the cost of transporting the shuttle from its landing site at Edwards in California back to Kennedy in Florida, all of the landings are in Florida now (weather permitting).

Here is a video of the first shuttle landing.  Check out the old school NASA RV.  It's amazing that something designed in the '70s is still carrying people into space!

This is an extended look at the Challenger disaster.  I remember our school's principal coming into my classroom and telling us that the shuttle had exploded.  My teacher wheeled in a TV and we were glued to it for hours.  I don't think I really comprehended the tragedy until I watched this today (I was too young then).

Here is a launch sequence from last November.

And who knew NASA had mission posters?  Very Hollywood.  Sort of.