The following images were done in August and September of last year.
Photographing a Space Shuttle Launch is always an exciting and impressionable event. This launch of Shuttle Atlantis (STS-115) not only carried critical solar panels and parts to resume construction of the (ISS) International Space Station but also set several "Firsts" for the shuttle program.
The first event happened during an intense storm. A 100,000amp lightning strike hit the launch pad and set a record for extreme voltage and delayed the launch 3days while systems were rechecked. The second event was Hurricane Ernesto. For the first time ever, after rolling the shuttle half way back to the VAB to avoid the storm it was decided to turn around and go back to the pad and ride out the storm in an attempt to launch this critical mission within the limited launch window, this delayed the launch another 4 days. The third and fourth events were not uncommon to the launch teams but added 5 more days of delay. Two consecutive launch attempts had to be scrubbed in the final three hours of the countdowns due to a couple of tiny little minor fuel cut-off sensors known lovingly to the launch teams as "launch prevention devices". The sensors do very little, however due to the extreme professionalism and care to safety of the NASA shuttle program today, everything must be operating perfectly before the OK is given to launch the "most complex machine man has ever made".
When going to the space station the shuttle has to be launched within a very limited window of time, often less than 5 - 10 minutes in order to be able to meet up with the station the net day in orbit. This 5-10 minute window is only available at certain times in a 30 day launch cycle and then everything has to be put on hold, often months, untill the next launch window opens. Finaly, on the morning of September 9, 2006 the last possible day to attempt to launch STS-115 and after 13 days of delay (the longest continuos countdown of the program) the Space Shuttle Atlantis finally lifted off from pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center with the heaviest payload (38,000lbs) ever flown on a Space Shuttle
To witness a Space Shuttle launch close up is exhilarating to the senses and by any accounts is
'Americas Greatest Spectacle'!
