I’m lucky to have been able to participate in the Space Shuttle Program through a minor support role while working at CCAFS. I’ve also been very fortunate to be able to photograph the last three shuttles, Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis when I shot these photos just before the STS-125 mission.
During STS-125 mission, Space Shuttle Atlantis launched on May 11, 2009 at 2:01 pm and serviced the Hubble Space Telescope.
Since its first launch on 10/3/85, Space Shuttle Atlantis has logged 32 missions with 191 crew members, spent over 293 days in space, orbited the earth 4,648 times and traveled 120,650,907 miles. Atlantis will be the last space shuttle launch and is currently scheduled for early July.
Central Florida is home to Port Canaveral, one of the more popular cruise ports in Florida. What many cruise tourist may not know is, Port Canaveral is also home to a large scale cargo operation shipping citrus, aggregates, fuel and other products.
Pictured above is the cargo ship TRANQUIL ACE.
Fuel is an important commodity at the Port, above is a picture of the INDIAN RIVER Tug Boat at a fuel berth.
Pilot Boats ferry the harbor pilots to any ship including cruise ships that enter Port Canaveral.
Many Florida Inlets are beautiful, natural passes, some with stabilizing jetties and some without. Many are difficult to navigate especially during outgoing tide with swift currents that build ocean swells into a real white knuckle experience. Port Canaveral isn’t such a place. Port Canaveral is a wide inlet with locks that that separate it from the Banana River which reduces tidal effects in the port’s basin.
Early Saturday morning at the Easter Surf Festival in Cocoa Beach.
Space Shuttle Discovery Lift-off on October 23, at 11:38 am from Cape Canaveral.
Skimboarder at Sebastian Inlet.
Calm seas and warm sunshine.
