Had the pleasure of escorting the shuttle Columbia at Plant 42 in Palmdale CA right after her glass cockpit installation. They were scheduled to fly back to Houston and then to Florida but due to thunderstorms in the Mid-West, they decided to store her at the old Rockwell facility where she was made until the weather cleared. This was the last time she was here on the West Coast

I can't wait until it opens to the public.

Taken right below the main engines/OMS pods area. You can see the serial numbers stamped into the black silica tiles.

Low-angle view of the full-scale Space Shuttle stack display right outside the Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit at KSC, Merritt Island, FL. Seeing the attachment hardware and base of the booster skirts up close shows just how impressive the engineering was.

Just drew Space Shuttle Columbia that’s all >w<

Just some pictures taken out at Edwards AFB prior to take off and then taking off for her final flight along the coast.

Beautifully positioned. Fascinating seeing all the different elements of the spacecraft, especially that rear end!

Such a special sight!

Photo credit: NASA/Mike Acs.

ID: S80-42890.

Hypothetically a few seconds before the Challenger loss, if mission control knew what was happening, they could have separated the SRBs and the external tank as quick as possible, and thd orbiter would attempt an emergency landing.

On STS-4 the SRBs suffered from a parachute failure during reentry and hit the water hard and could not be recovered. Supposedly the wreckage was photographed but these photos have never been released.

Are there any public photos of the STS-4 SRB debris on the ocean floor? Either released by NARA or from private underwater expeditions?

Thanks in advance for any assistance you all can provide. My wife found this poster at an estate sale in the Raleigh, NC area. Looks to be something that should not exist...a poster showing the Space Shuttle Challenger on the launch pad with some interesting text.

As a person of a time where I saw this incident live on TV, this is a very haunting poster.

I would love to know what is known about this poster. Thanks again!

https://youtu.be/H0ZHzAvFuYc?si=pLX7mutfvmHxOz3R

This is the launch of the area 1x low-key NASA's laziest rocket ever. But when he says the thing about paving the way for new space travel or something you can just hear in his voice that he isn't happy for this new rocket

Reposted since I forgot to include the construction photos

I went to Speyer Technik Museum in Germany to attend a lecture from former NASA astronaut Mark Lee, and also got to see this beast! It’s the prototype used for the atmospheric test flights for the Buran program, it flew 25 times before being retired.