9:00 AM

The Final Space Shuttle Mission

At the close of the STS-135 shuttle mission, I began to wonder how I would even begin to sum up my experience working on the Space Shuttle Program. It has been the most exciting, invigorating thing I could have imagined doing with my career, and I have been very, very blessed. Working at the TPS Imagery Coordinator console (TIC) in the Shuttle Mission Evaluation Room (MER) in Houston's Mission Control Center (MCC) has been the highlight of my career up to this point. I'm going to miss the on-orbit console support that we provided to the Space Shuttle Program during the next couple of years, but I'm excited about the things to come!

After writing multiple long paragraphs about my work that were way too in depth for this blog, I decided to scrap it all and just go with the pictures and videos from the last flight, STS-135. Enjoy!


This video is of the KSC Closeout Crew saying goodbye to the Space Shuttle Program (God Bless America!!):


My friend and coworker, Dave Melendrez, created this next video to commemorate the final Space Shuttle launch, ever. It's a long one (17 minutes), but good.


TIC Team on console during STS-135
Leslie Upchurch and Dan Labasse, STS-135
Big Dawg, Little Dawg, McMahan & the Queen Bee (aka. Dan, Amanda, Johnathan and Leslie)
Dan and me
Johnathan, me and Dan on console, STS-135
Johnathan and me on console, STS-135
SSP MER during STS-135
TIC Team 1 on console during STS-135
TIC Team 1 on console during STS-135

Leslie and I were very blessed to be able to make the trek to Florida's Space Coast to watch the April 2010 attempt of the last launch of Endeavor for STS-134. In this trip, we were able to see the final vehicle to take flight in the Space Shuttle Program, the Space Shuttle Atlantis, up close and personal as it was being prepped for it's final voyage in the Orbiter Processing Facility. So amazing!!


Leslie and I standing aft of Atlantis in the OPF

The final video I have is an incredibly reflective one about all the things we've accomplished in space. It's a great way to conclude this blog. If you don't watch the others, watch this one. What Kind of World Do You Want:


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