A number of years ago, my brother asked me to drive with him to the Grand Canyon. I remember that I declined, either because of the time required, or. . . .well, it could have been any number or reasons, probably I was just lazy. Eventually, he determined not to go to the Canyon, but heard there would be a space shuttle launch, so he went there instead. I still didn’t accompany him.
Time passed, and he went to see another launch and then asked if I’d like to go with him for the next one. I thought about it, as I knew the Shuttle Program was coming to an end. Long story, shorter: I applied for media credentials and was ecstatic when I was approved to document STS-134, the final launch of the shuttle Endeavour.
May 16, 2011
I shot with three cameras mounted to a single tripod. On top was my standard digital camera, a Canon 5D mkII. To one side of that was an infrared converted Canon 20D. On the other side I mounted a Canon A2 35mm film camera, loaded with Kodak Ektachrome infrared. I had cable releases for the two side mounted cameras. At the almost-last-minute, I taped a Flip Video camera to the front of my tripod, just to have the recording. Aiming it was awkward and I was just happy to get the launch in the frame.
I hadn’t watched the video in a long, long time, until the other day. The power of that moment came back to me in a real way. If there were a coolness meter, a shuttle launch would peg it. It was a profound moment, watching the vehicle move silently off of the pad, before the sound arrived at the NASA press site. And then the sound hit. Boy, did it hit. About the time I was thinking, “this isn’t as loud as I expected,” the full weight of the booster’s sound hit. If you watch the attached video, you can hear it first drown out the voices of the other attendees, and then it overloads the camera’s microphone. That’s a beautiful moment for a cat like me. Let the sound wash over me.
The vehicle disappeared through the layer of clouds; I stood silently.
The roar of the engines faded to nothing, and after clicking the occasional picture of the smoke trail and the shadows it made on the ground, I just stood looking up, thinking about what I had just seen.