Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-135) lifts off for the last time from Pad 39A in Cape Canaveral, Fl. This photo ran in the print edition of The Destin Log.

At the Udvar Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum.

This is most of what is left of the launch pad that was used to send Americans to the moon.....likely what the shuttle pads will look like in 20 years too. This site is not on any official tour....in fact if you do not know where it is, you will not find it, even with an official badge.

Space Shuttle Discovery leaving Altus AFB after refuel, enroute to KSC.

PVTA Bus. Edited with Instagram

Space Shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center.

The space shuttle Endeavour flew over Houston and landed at Ellington Field on its final flight from Florida to California. Mom went to see it. The shuttle was bolted to a 747 for its flight.

Note the fiery exhaust emitted by the SSMEs while payload bay doors are open on orbit, indicating a major mission anomaly.

We can see it from our backyard, but even with the telephoto, this is as close as we have gotten so far.

Kennedy Space Center

Atlantis' final rollover from the VAB to its waiting museum space at the KSCVC

Air Power Park

88139706 :Piction ID--Rockwell B-1 Lancer-- --Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum

Kennedy Space Center

Atlantis' final rollover from the VAB to its waiting museum space at the KSCVC

Kennedy Space Center

Atlantis' final rollover from the VAB to its waiting museum space at the KSCVC

A storm was moving toward the Space Center Houston complex.

Originally I was hoping to bokeh out the background and leave the stop sign in focus, but it was impossible to do with this lens.

My family and I were heading to Wright Patterson Air Force Base on February 1, 2003 when I turned on the radio and heard the space shuttle Columbia did not show up on time to the landing site and that NASA had lost contact with the shuttle. I knew immediately what had happened.

We continued on the the Air Force Museum and everyone was in a fog about it. I stopped in the gift shop and got the only mission patch they had for this shuttle flight.

I felt the same grief as I did with Challenger. Go to the web link below to read about this great crew and their ship.

www.nasa.gov/columbia/home/index.html

The space shuttle Endeavour visits Monterey

Space Shuttle Enterprise, on its way to the Paris Air Show. 19-20 MAY 1983.

The business end of the engine

Space Shuttle Enterprise, on its way to the Paris Air Show. 19-20 MAY 1983.

Kennedy Space Center

Atlantis' final rollover from the VAB to its waiting museum space at the KSCVC

Kennedy Space Center

Atlantis' final rollover from the VAB to its waiting museum space at the KSCVC

onboard an Antonov An-225 Mriya

Space Shuttle flyover Los Angeles, Sept. 21, 2012.

Space Shuttle Booster. Cape Canaveral. FL, USA.