Farewell Endeavour

Growing up in Pasadena, with my childhood friend's dad being one of the engineers at NASA - responsible for designing the training simulators to teach the astronauts to fly the shuttles - the space program has always been close to my heart. Kenny Mansfield passed away many years ago, but when the Shuttle Endeavour toured the greater Houston area for the last time, I couldn't help but think of him and how proud he would have been of this remarkable sight.

Endeavour rocked the house on this fly-over September 19th:



The following morning, headed to its final docking space in Los Angeles, the shuttle again flew right over the end of our street ... amazing!



During their brief stay in Houston, the crew toured the area - out of respect for NASA and the men and women responsible for so many space flights. Here is a beautiful shot of Endeavour and the escort jet flying over the San Jacinto Monument:



Another beauty shot taken at Ellington Field:



Following Endeavour's progress, many Twitter followers posted photos as it flew over iconic landmarks ... here it is flying over Alcatraz ...



Looking up at Endeavour aboard it's huge transport plane:



Approaching the Golden Gate Bridge ...



Beauty shot, with the escort jet at its side.



It's the end of an era, but one that we can look back on with pride. I know in my heart that Mr. Mansfield was smiling down from heaven as he watched that shuttle circle our area ... not only was the shuttle itself an amazing example of engineering, but attaching it to that transport plane must have taken a few mathematical calculations as well!