Anyone going to watch the Discovery shuttle landing?

[Triumph]

Space shuttle Discovery is set to land on the back of a 747 at Dulles Airport this Tuesday around 10-11 am. I live right nearby and plan on taking a half day off work to see it. Pretty momentous if you ask me, not only is it quite a site to see a space ship landing on the back of a giant airplane, it's quite important from the historical perspective of the end of the shuttle program.

Anybody plan on watching and know more about which direction it's going to come in from? Dulles has north/south runways and NW/SE runways, but they usually land on the north/south lines, which is good for me. I guess it depends on the prevailing winds come Tuesday morning.

 

[mnewsham]

I could do it, but i dont usually wake up until about noon...sooooo im probably gonna pass.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Would if lived in the area :\

 

[vshah]

are you going to the flyover on the mall?

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/aroundthemall/2012/04/where-to-watch-discoverys-flyover/

 

[Hugo Drax]

I am keeping an eye on that Shuttle.

 

[Crono]

I am keeping an eye on that Shuttle.

I won't let you launch that toxin, Drax!

[shoots poison dart]

 

[Triumph]

are you going to the flyover on the mall?

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/aroundthemall/2012/04/where-to-watch-discoverys-flyover/

no i live near dulles so no reason to drive all the way down to DC.

they say to view it at udvar hazy, i drove by there yesterday and the view of incoming planes is not the best. unless they're going to do a flyby there as well.

the best place to see it would be the tower at udvar hazy, though.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Will be watching from the Washington monument.

 

[insanity2]

Space shuttle Discovery is set to land on the back of a 747 at Dulles Airport this Tuesday around 10-11 am. I live right nearby and plan on taking a half day off work to see it. Pretty momentous if you ask me, not only is it quite a site to see a space ship landing on the back of a giant airplane, it's quite important from the historical perspective of the end of the shuttle program.

Anybody plan on watching and know more about which direction it's going to come in from? Dulles has north/south runways and NW/SE runways, but they usually land on the north/south lines, which is good for me. I guess it depends on the prevailing winds come Tuesday morning.

Damn you Obama. Now we have to depend on the Russians to resupply the ISS while we wait for NASA to figger out a new way into space? The hull integrities of all the Space Shuttles were immaculate from what I've read. Why not milk them for another 10 years? Seems a shame to mothball them.

 

[GrumpyMan]

So is Donald Trump going to pick up his new shuttle and put it on his golf course?

 

[Insomniator]

Thought the shuttle program ended like 5 years ago

 

[MH2007]

Thought the shuttle program ended like 5 years ago

Last shuttle flight was July 8 to 21, 2011

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-135

EDIT: these solutions are for unmanned supply missions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_%28spacecraft%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cygnus_(spacecraft)

In the meantime astronauts are relying on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft for manned flight

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_(rocket_family)

 

[ichy]

Too depressing, it's a reminder of how far out country has fallen.

 

[vshah]

Last shuttle flight was July 8 to 21, 2011

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-135

EDIT: these solutions are for unmanned supply missions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_(spacecraft)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cygnus_(spacecraft)

In the meantime astronauts are relying on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft for manned flight

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_(rocket_family)

whenever linked to space ships or space technology on Wikipedia, i invariably lose a few hours of time reading about futuristic propulsion and other cool space shit. thanks

 

[Triumph]

shuttle lands tomorrow! Flying from Kennedy at 7 AM and making several flybys of various places throughout the trip.

http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-041612a.html

 

[sixone]

I wish I could be there.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

i live within earshot of IAD, but ill be working instead

 

[corwin]

Would love to if I was anywhere near...take pics and share if you get a good view

 

[JulesMaximus]

That would be cool to get a picture of.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Wow. I was on the Mall around 10:00 this morning. Quite a festive mood. There were many thousands there: locals, tourists, even schools were let out. It did two loops around the mall at around 500 ft. AGL, flying along the southern border of the Mall, over the Lincoln, passed the Washington, over the Smithsonian castle, then around the Capitol.

I got a few shots with my 5DII but can't process the RAW files here at work, so I'll have to re-post them later from home.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Wow. I was on the Mall around 10:00 this morning. Quite a festive mood. There were many thousands there: locals, tourists, even schools were let out. It did two loops around the mall at around 500 ft. AGL, flying along the southern border of the Mall, over the Lincoln, passed the Washington, over the Smithsonian castle, then around the Capitol.

I got a few shots with my 5DII but can't process the RAW files here at work, so I'll have to re-post them later from home.

Awesome

 

[vshah]

Wow. I was on the Mall around 10:00 this morning. Quite a festive mood. There were many thousands there: locals, tourists, even schools were let out. It did two loops around the mall at around 500 ft. AGL, flying along the southern border of the Mall, over the Lincoln, passed the Washington, over the Smithsonian castle, then around the Capitol.

I got a few shots with my 5DII but can't process the RAW files here at work, so I'll have to re-post them later from home.

extremely jealous, can't wait to see your pics

 

[Triumph]

Quick grab of photos from my camera, will have to clean up and upload more after work. So glad I went to see this.

 

[vshah]

^awesome

 

[Printer Bandit]