NASA invited me to the John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida to attend a special NASA Tweetup (#nasatweetup) for the Space Shuttle Atlantis launch of the STS-129 mission to the International Space Station. The Space Shuttle launched on Monday, November 16th at 2:28pm EST from launch pad 39A.
Here are my launch day photos & video that I uploaded live from the press center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, which is located 3 miles from the launch pad.
As part of the NASA Tweetup, we took a tour of the Kennedy Space Center, stopping by the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF), Apollo / Saturn V Center and ended up with an amazing visit to a close up view of launch pad 39A with the Space Shuttle Orbiter in place on the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) ready for take off.
While touring Kennedy Space Center, we drove by a gigantic eagle’s nest (as big as king size bed) which has been home multiple generations of eagles for over 45 years. KSC is part of Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, which is also home to alligators, wild boar, black bear, manatee, Florida panthers and over 330 species of birds.
Photo Gallery: NASA Tweetup Space Shuttle STS-129
NASA photographer Carla Cioffi has been shooting a bunch of great photos of the STS-129 NASA Tweetup and uploading them to NASA HQ Flickr account.
More Coverage:
photos by Scott Beale
UPDATE: Photos from Kennedy Space Center, Apollo / Saturn V Center and International Space Station Center.