We were at Kennedy last November and didn't even realize the shuttle was landing that day until we arrived. There was supposed to be a launch that day but that got postponed several days before, but we decided to go anyway. We just got lucky and were really glad we still decided to go.
As it was coming in for a landing, the entire place just stopped and both visitors and employees watched. It was pretty cool watching a small speck move across the sky toward the base, hearing the sonic boom as it went subsonic, watching it head out over the ocean and turn around to make its approach, and then watching it disappear behind the buildings and trees just before it landed. I realize it's basically a glider, but I was still surprised at how quiet it was after the sonic boom.
Even though we got a pretty good look we were still pretty far away from the actual landing strip. Even at full zoom (420mm) it couldn't fill up the frame so after blowing them up my pictures came out kind of grainy. But that didn't really matter, it was cool to get that sequence of shots after having the good luck to be there. My son got a short video clip on his camera, which was also really cool.
If you have an opportunity to go when there's a landing or, better still, a launch, DO NOT miss it. It's worth seeing.
As it was coming in for a landing, the entire place just stopped and both visitors and employees watched. It was pretty cool watching a small speck move across the sky toward the base, hearing the sonic boom as it went subsonic, watching it head out over the ocean and turn around to make its approach, and then watching it disappear behind the buildings and trees just before it landed. I realize it's basically a glider, but I was still surprised at how quiet it was after the sonic boom.
Even though we got a pretty good look we were still pretty far away from the actual landing strip. Even at full zoom (420mm) it couldn't fill up the frame so after blowing them up my pictures came out kind of grainy. But that didn't really matter, it was cool to get that sequence of shots after having the good luck to be there. My son got a short video clip on his camera, which was also really cool.
If you have an opportunity to go when there's a landing or, better still, a launch, DO NOT miss it. It's worth seeing.
