Spaceflight

Highlights from projects and assignments with National Geographic and NASA captured at the Kennedy Space Center, Wallops Flight Facility, California Science Center, and Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Space Shuttle Endeavour in the California Science Center:

Following its final launch in 2011, Space Shuttle Endeavour was flown to Los Angeles and is now on display in the Samuel Oschin Pavilion at the California Science Center. Visit Endeavour in this tour created for the science center’s website to allow special access for viewers while the museum was closed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Backup MSL Rover in JPL Mars Yard Garage:

NASA’s InSight Mission to Mars:

On November 26th, 2018, NASA’s InSight lander touched down on the Elysium Planitia of Mars. Short for "Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport," InSight deployed a seismometer instrument on the surface of Mars to measure marsquakes, data used for exploring the planet’s interior structure. This will allow scientists to better understand the geological evolution of Mars and answer key questions about the formation of all four rocky planets in our inner solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.

Astronaut Crew Quarters at Kennedy Space Center:

Located on the top floor of the Operations and Checkout building at Kennedy Space Center, these Astronaut Crew Quarters were first used for Gus Grissom and John Young before the launch of Gemini 3 in 1965. The facility contains quarantined bedrooms for the astronauts and their support crew, a kitchen to feed them all, conference rooms, a medical clinic, gym, and office space, all used in the days leading up to a launch. The most recognizable areas are the Suit-Up Room where astronauts were dressed for launch and the Dining Room where they did pre-flight press conferences. The remainder of these rooms were totally off-limits to visitors during the active Space Shuttle Program.

 Launch Complex 39A and 39B at Kennedy Space Center

Built in 1965, Launch Complex 39A hosted 92 launches from the Apollo and Space Shuttle Programs. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins departed from there to the Moon on Apollo 11. STS-1 launched from 39A, the first ever space shuttle flight, as did the next 23 missions before 39B came online several miles to the north. At the end of the program, the last 18 shuttle missions launched from 39A while 39B transitioned for use with the Ares I rocket and now for the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. 39A is currently leased by SpaceX for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.

This tour includes panoramas from the surfaces of both 39A and 39B in addition to 39A’s highest level (295′), the level where the astronauts boarded the shuttle for launch (195′), the bottom of the SRB Flame Trench, and the inside of the “Rubber Room”, a blast room still remaining deep inside of the pad and accessed though a tunneled slide during the Apollo program in case of a Saturn V’s catastrophic failure.

Space Shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex

Space Shuttle Atlantis is capture here during three key moments in the construction of her new display: while wrapped in protective plastic during the dirtiest period of construction, after that plastic had been removed but before both Payload Bay doors were opened, and in the completed exhibit a few days before opening to the public. Each pair of panoramas, one from above and one below, were taken from nearly the same location in January, May and June of 2013.