Awesome pic, but it just feels wrong that it did not land at Edwards.
I saw the Shuttle land at Edwards one night in the 80’s in the desert.
It was amazing.
I have always wondered how the weight of an orbiter in transit equals to the weight of a fully loaded 747 ot the type that was used to haul the shuttle from place to place. Would it roughly eqaul the total weight of a full passenger compliment along with its luggage and fuel load?
That aside, it was sad to see the finality of the Space Shuttle Program come to an end when Endeavour came to a stop in LA last week. that drove home the point that no more shuttle flights would ever be made. Now we have to wait a few years until we get our collective act together and start launch OUR people on OUR rockets from OUR launch pads in OUR country.
Another “what if” question that will never be answered is where would Columbia and Challenger have ended up if they hadn’t been destroyed? My gues is Columbia would have gone to the Smithsonian in D.C. because it was the first. Challenger may have stayed at KSC. Atlantis and Discovery would have been ditributed to a couple of museums. Endeavour would not have existed had Challenger survived. Endeavour was built to replace Challenger.