Shuttle Time!

On Friday (September 21, 2012) we were all able to go and see the historic fly over of the Space Shuttle Endeavour (OV-105) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, CA.  This laboratory is responsible for much of the research that got the shuttle up into space in the first place.  Brielle was out of school for having a fever the previous day and James took a little time off work to meet up with everyone.  Brielle was really feeling pretty miserable, bu we explained that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity.  Kudos to her for allowing her 5-year old brain to grasp that concept!  Above is the vantage point from which we watched the shuttle fly over.

Megan packed us a nice little picnic, but we did not have time to eat it before the shuttle arrived.  We had not anticipated such heavy traffic near this fly over site.  There were people just pulled over on the side of the freeway with lawn chairs!  We parked about 1/2 a miles from the look out point and walked over.  It was very crowded, which made it all the more exciting!

The kids enjoyed taking turns looking for the shuttle.  We first saw it in the distance as it made a pass by the Griffth Observatory.  It then made its way over to us.

As the shuttle got closer the crowd of people began to cheer like crazy.  We tried to snap some pictures and take video as best we could, but we wanted to see it with our eyes rather than than through a view finder.  It was just one of those moments were you felt very proud to be an American.  It was also a little sad to know that this was the end of an era, especially since there is not another one on the horizon.

The shuttle had two wingmen that escorted it around the whole day.  Those were Ethan's favorite part as you can hear in the video below.

I had just a second to snap one picture of Megan and Brielle with the shuttle in the background (very far away).  It is just over the top of the man's head.

After the fly over we had a quick lunch overlooking JPL and then headed back to normal life.  It was an exciting site to see.  We are looking forward to seeing the shuttle drive along the streets of Los Angeles in a few weeks as it is moved to its final home at the Science Center.