enjoy

 

Very cool, wish I could have been there to see it!

 

What did they bring it there for?

 

very nice, but why there?!

 

Here is a picture of it flying over the Capitol Building in Austin.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ruthless18x/8010563975/" title="120920 - Space Shuttle Fly-by of hte Capitol Building in Austin, TX (1) by Ruthless18x, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8307/8010563975_a61b4fe56f_c.jpg" width="800" height="531" alt="120920 - Space Shuttle Fly-by of hte Capitol Building in Austin, TX (1)"></a>

 

because it's going to stay here in a free museum. In October it's going be on the road to it's resting place.

 

Wow awesome pics. This few right over my head but I slept though it

 

AWESOME sight!!!!
I still can't believe I missed that when they flew one over the Hudson...
THANKS for sharing!

 

That's awesome. Thanks for the nice pics.

 

 

humans .... we are a hell of thing.

 

can anyone explain the need for the fake fighter escort?

 

badass

 

me too!

 

that is so awesome

 

Really nice photos. Bummed that I didn't get to see it. Thanks for sharing!

 

they are not 'fake fighter escort'

they are called 'chase planes'

they serve a few of purposes

1. provide visual 'back up' eyes-in-the-sky to make sure that the orbiter is still attached to the back of the 747, and that nothing is about to fall off of the plane. if so they can tell the pilot of the 747 that something is up before they actually can feel it.

2. provide photography of the event. these are the two seat D variants that nasa uses so that the 2nd seater can either be a photographer or be the data collection engineer for whatever test they are doing.

3. the chase planes were used to fly the route at head of time to make sure there wasn't any issues navigating around LA for the final day..

 

Makes more sense than my idea. Thanks.

 

cool pics man thanks for sharing!

 

... im laughing in my seat at work..