Thursday, September 20, 2012

Space Shuttle Endeavor flies over Tucson Arizona one last time

A story that has made national headlines:

The space shuttle Endeavor, which was piloted on its last mission by Mark Kelly (husband of Gabrielle Giffords), is being carried on the back of a 747 for its last flight before its final destination in the Los Angeles area.

Captain Kelly asked NASA to make a minor adjustment in its flight plan to fly over Tucson so his wife Gabby could see it.  Mark piloted the mission shortly after the shooting on January 8, 2011 that injured then Congresswoman Giffords.

It was scheduled to fly over the University of Arizona campus today after approaching from the east.  A completely random moment on my part occurred today when I decided to walk out of the back door of the KGUN 9 building to see if it would even be visible.

It flew just north of the building.  I got a pretty good photo.

I'm excited because I posted it on Facebook and it has about 120 likes... and it also was featured for about half of the day today on the home page of the KGUN 9 website, and we also used it as our Photo of the Day on the Morning Blend.

I'm always doubtful about whether I take good photos or not.  So, this was an exciting moment for me.

This is the original version.

My friend Robert Villelas punched it up just a tad in Photoshop.
It's being used in one of KGUN 9 newscasts tonight!