Astronomy magazine contributor Allen Fredrickson has attended a lot of space shuttle launches. For several recent ones, he has acted as a press correspondent for Astronomy. He returned to Kennedy Space Center in Florida February 24 to witness space shuttle Discovery’s 39th and final launch. During that time, NASA’s oldest remaining space shuttle has logged 148 million miles (238 million kilometers) in space since its first launch in August 1984.
The crew of Discovery walks out to the space shuttle just prior to launch February 24. Allen Fredrickson photo
From the press mound, Discovery’s launch looked (and sounded) tremendous. Allen Fredrickson photo
Fredrickson set up a remote camera approximately 0.75 mile (1.2 km) from the launch pad to capture the takeoff. He also took shots with a tripod-mounted camera from the press mound. Here are some of his pictures from this historic event.
This four-part sequence below shows Discovery’s launch as shot from Frederickson's remote camera, which sat approximately 0.75 mile (1.2 km) from the launch pad.
