November 16, 2008— I’m waiting for the photos to come out from just before the night-time launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour. About an hour before liftoff, a harvest moon rose just to the right of the launch pad. I mean a really golden orange moon. Even an amateur photographer like me couldn’t mess up.
Docking is set for Sunday and the first spacewalk on Tuesday.
More to come-- |
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This picture to the left isn't of Endeavour, but it's probably my favorite launch day Shuttle shot to date. It's not from last night, but I'm curious if this picture from an Atlantis launch in 2001 could be outclassed by one of Endeavour and that harvest moon. Also, Endeavour is fine, so I can waste time talking about photography. If that photo from last night turns out, it could be even better than the older picture from 2001. It was a sunrise blast off and the sun cut bands of color in the Shuttle’s smoky exhaust trail. You could hear the shutters snapping on that one. 
Also, public radio listeners will appreciate this “blast from the past”. Bob Edwards, NPR’s long time “Morning Edition” host has his own program on Sirius Satellite Radio. He asked me to sit down for an interview about NASA and my book “Final Countdown”. It was a great hour-long talk on the troubled history of the Shuttle program and what’s coming up.