Atlantis Landing at Edwards AFB, May 24, 2009

ian.kluft.com / pics / atlantis-edwards-20090524 /

I got pictures of the May 24, 2009 landing of STS-125 Atlantis at Edwards Air Force Base. From where I was, it disappeared behind some buildings during the landing flare. Thanks to Kurt for bringing us on the base as his guests for the pictures - the public viewing areas were not open over the holiday weekend.

Yes, this adds to the running coincidence - I've seen a shuttle launch, a shuttle orbiter in its hangar, and now two landings, all of them Atlantis.

shuttle launch: STS-86 Atlantis, September 1997 - rescue mission to Mir: http://ian.kluft.com/pics/m2cc/sts86-2pc.gif
(from my 1997 trip to KSC)
in its hangar: Atlantis, November 1999: http://ian.kluft.com/pics/m2cc-99/d03p08-ksc-ov104.jpg
(from my 1999 trip to KSC)
prior landing: STS-117 Atlantis, June 2007: http://ian.kluft.com/pics/atlantis-edwards-20070622/
The sun's angle was better in those photos than it was this time, behind me instead of behind the orbiter. You can see the difference in how the sunlight enhanced the view in the 2007 photos.

Uncropped versions of these photos available

The photos shown below are cropped. You can see the full uncropped photos in a subdirectory. You can see where I still tried to keep taking pictures as it was disappearing behind buildings.

Photos from overflights of Edwards AFB

On April 5 during the flight home from the Space Access 2009 Conference in Phoenix, I was granted a request to traverse Edwards AFB's airspace as a shortcut direct to the Mojave Air & Space Port, since it was a Sunday and no one in the military was using the airspace.We got some pictures during the rare opportunity to fly over Edwards.

I also got aerial photos of Edwards AFB on June 1, 2008 on a flight back from Las Vegas.