I was recently commissioned to turn three of my images of the final missions of Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis into wall art. Pictured above is a 3D representation of the commissioned Space Shuttle canvasses. This image does not feature 100% accurate placement of the images, but is close enough to give the feel of how the actual canvasses will look on a wall.

The first image is Atlantis during the rollout to the pad for STS-135. The second image is the launch of Endeavour shot from less than 1,800-feet away during the launch of STS-134. And the final image is Discovery returning to Earth and about to touch down for the final time to complete STS-133.

Here is the technical info about the canvasses. The two end pieces are 20″x16″ canvasses and the middle one is a 25″x18″ canvas. The canvasses are wrapped around a 1.5-inch wood frame and ready for hanging. I’d normally charge $450-$500 for the group, however, with a multi-quantity order discount, I can offer them for $350 by placing it at the same time as the original commission.

Admittedly these canvas prints are not cheap, but if anyone is interested in having their own set, either use the Buy Now option below or contact me by Oct. 21 at mchaseclark @ gmail.com to get the discounted rate. And yes, eventually I also will be making individual prints on photo paper available as well.

In celebration of the successful launch of the Juno Mission to explore Jupiter, I created a poster featuring my launch photo taken from the Atlantic Ocean off Playalinda Beach north of the launch pad, as well as several NASA photos of the spacecraft itself and the launch complex at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The photo poster is 24 inches by 12 inches and being printed by a professional photo lab. I’m offering prints of the poster to anyone who wants it for $20, plus a $5 charge for packaging and shipping to anywhere within the United States.

The camera used for the image was my Canon 7D, which is an 18 megapixel digital SLR, and a Canon 300 mm zoom lens. The launch photo itself is not the greatest from a technical standpoint, but that is no real surprise as I did have to shoot the image from sea level through nearly five miles of ocean salt spray and heat haze. However, the composition of the photo was unique among the media reps at the launch and proved to be popular among Space Tweeps and the worlds of social media. Hence my reason for deciding to use it for the poster.

The image of the poster shown above is a low resolution file of the original draft image. I’ver made minor adjustments to it since receiving a test print of it. The poster is being printed on Kodak Endura Metallic paper, which uses a combination of film laminate layers to produce ‘three-dimensional’ images on an ultra-bright background. The paper provides extreme sharpness, brightness and color saturation that increases visual appeal as well as being tear resistant and having an estimated 100-year lifespan.

To purchase the poster, just click on the ‘Buy Now’ button below and follow the instructions to pay through PayPal. Orders of multiple posters are allowed and there is no additional shipping charge if all are being sent to the same address. Don’t forget to include your name and shipping address with your order. The final posters should be in the mail to initial purchasers by early to mid September.

Note: Orders to addresses outside the United States are possible, just please contact me in advance at mchaseclark @ gmail.com so that I can figure out how much extra it will cost for shipping. Thanks.

Since moving to Florida in 2007, I’ve been fortunate enough to witness nine rocket launches, including seven from up close as a member of the working media. The latest launch I saw was the Juno launch atop an Atlas V 551 rocket – the most powerful of the Atlas configurations.

The Juno spacecraft launched on August 5, 2011 and will reach Jupiter in July of 2016. Juno then will make 33 polar orbits before being plunged into solar system’s largest planet thereby ending its mission.

Juno will improve our understanding of our solar system’s beginnings by revealing the origin and evolution of Jupiter.

Specifically, Juno will…

• Determine how much water is in Jupiter’s atmosphere, which helps determine which planet formation theory is correct (or if new theories are needed)

• Look deep into Jupiter’s atmosphere to measure composition, temperature, cloud motions and other properties

• Map Jupiter’s magnetic and gravity fields, revealing the planet’s deep structure

• Explore and study Jupiter’s magnetosphere near the planet’s poles, especially the auroras – Jupiter’s northern and southern lights – providing new insights about how the planet’s enormous magnetic force field affects its atmosphere.

You can learn more about Juno at NASA’s official mission page.

Here are a few highlights from the afternoon’s adventure. I’ve also uploaded many more photos taken within Launch Complex 39 at my SmugMug site which can be accessed directly via www.ShuttlePhotos.com. All of the photos listed there are available as prints by a professional photo lab on your choice of several high-quality photo papers. My preference is the Kodak Endura metallic paper as it really makes these type of images pop off the paper.

Atlantis awaits the slow voyage atop the MLP from the VAB to Launch Pad 39A.

The following is the original version of a column I wrote for my hometown newspaper. It is the fourth in a series of articles meant to inform and hopefully inspire students of my alma mater to pursue careers in the STEM fields.

It is hard to complain when experiencing a bad night on the Space Coast as the morning can be stunning indeed.

Last Tuesday marked the final rollout of space shuttle Atlantis to the launch pad, followed just hours later by the landing of Endeavour for the last time. I was at Kennedy Space Center all night shooting photographs of both events but ended up with little decent to show for it. I was trying out a new 18 mm lens while watching Atlantis exit the Vehicle Assembly Building via the crawler-transporter. Once again, I had the pleasure of some of the best seats in the house as I witnessed the historic event from Level 5 and Level 16 of the VAB and later from atop the nearby Launch Control Center. I took plenty of photos but ended up quite unhappy with the lack of sharpness and large amount of noise within the image files. Lesson learned. Never try out new equipment on a one-off event, especially if it is the only lens you are carrying with you at the time.

Just as Atlantis was arriving at the launch pad, Endeavour announced it’s pending arrival with a pair of sonic booms just minutes before landing at the Shuttle Landing Facility. In the pure blackness of the night, Endeavour remained unseen until it was just feet above the end of the runway and entered the light of a pair of Xenon lights shining down the paved surface. Without a visual on the space shuttle, and with it being the still of the night, our senses were much more attuned to the swoosh of the air as it became louder and louder as Endeavour finished the final wide turn to burn off supersonic speed and prepared to touch down on the runway at more than 200 miles per hour.

Orbital mechanics is a very interesting science, although one in which I sadly lack much knowledge. The millions of pound of thrust necessary to lift the space shuttle from the ground into space, come back into play when it is time to land. The shuttle must burn off all that momentum – all 17,500 miles per hour of it – and does so mostly in the form of heating as it reenters the atmosphere. Luckily for Endeavour, a hot shock wave forms in front of the shuttle and deflects most of the heat upon reentry. Most, but not all, as the shuttle’s heat shield tiles can still reach a scorching 3,000 degrees during reentry.

As if that is not confusing enough, consider this. Endeavour performed a deorbit burn to slow down and fall into the atmosphere. But upon entering Earth’s gravity well, the space shuttle actually sped up and at one point was going faster than when in orbit. To simplify that, Endeavour slowed down so that it could speed up so it can slow down. Confused? I know I am. Surely a few or my rocket science friends could explain it to me in great detail, but that doesn’t mean I’d actually understand it any better.

Endeavour made her final trek down the towback road just as the sun was rising.

While I ended up with nothing but black images to show for my time at the end of Runway 15, I wasn’t too upset. I knew that the odds of getting anything decent on my first time witnessing a night landing was pretty slim. I surely wasn’t going to bet against the odds. And that was all good and fine as I was well aware that Endeavour would be in the process of being towed back to the Orbiter Processing Facility-1 right around sunrise. I was expecting the shuttle to be bathed in wonderful soft light and I was not disappointed.

Unlike the previous towback I had photographed, this one was just about picture perfect. Not only was the sunlight just right to highlight the orbiter, but the water in the canal next to the towback road was as still and glasslike as a mirror. Most of the news media had gone to the launch pad to photograph Atlantis at sunrise. The few of us which decided to stay with Endeavour instead received the pleasure of witnessing one of the most photographic towbacks of the entire space shuttle program.

While the night had been filled with intervals of excitement followed by hours of playing the waiting game, the final moments of the long night-turned into morning were well worth staying awake to see with my own eyes. Endeavour was a beautiful site as the orbiter rolled past me and into retirement.

For those wishing to see the full color images from my time covering the final missions of the space shuttle program, please feel free to visit my photography website at www.ShuttlePhotos.com. I’ve placed a few hundred photos there and will be adding more in the future. When I have time and the inclination to do so, I also place photos of various places I have visited – including several NASA centers – at www.ChaseClark.com.

Endeavour is escorted back home by a line of people in front and a convoy of vehicles behind after completing her final mission to outer space, STS-134. Endeavour will now be transitioned into retirement and eventually placed on display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.

The once in a lifetime photos of Endeavour docked at the ISS have been released by the Russians and they are stunning images indeed. Expedition 27 crew member Paolo Nespoli captured the unique images of the orbiting duo while he was inside the Soyuz TMA-20 capsule which had departed from the ISS just minutes earlier. These images represent the first – and sadly last time – that a space shuttle and ISS have been photographed in their entirety from outer space while docked together.

To see the rest of the awe-inspiring pictures in high resolution, please visit:

http://www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-27/inflight/ndxpage40.html

Space shuttle Atlantis hangs inside the vast expanse of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center.

The Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center is massive. That actually is an understatement. The VAB is the largest single-story building in the world at 526 feet tall by 716 feet long and 518 feet wide. The interior volume of the VAB is so immense that rain clouds have formed inside of the building before. The four exterior bay doors are the largest doors in the world.

The VAB was built to be able to assemble four Saturn V rockets at a time. The Saturn V is the rocket which took Neil Armstrong to the moon. Those rockets were no small item themselves. Each was 363 feet tall and had a 33-foot diameter. Did I mention that the VAB is huge? Well, it really is.

Seeing the inside of the VAB had been a goal of mine ever since I first laid eyes on it. I finally pulled the feat off earlier this year. I’ve been inside the structure six times now for hours at a time, and it never ceases to amaze me. Don’t get the wrong idea. The VAB is not a futuristic place modeled after a Star Trek episode. There is little in the way of a sterile environment inside the walls of this mammoth of a building. It is simplistic with a large open central area and on each side a towering mass of gray steel girders, platforms and catwalks. All coated with decades of dirt and grime. Even rocket scientists aren’t immune from getting their hands dirty here.

As is often the case at KSC, the sheer size of the interior is nearly impossible for the mind to comprehend. The space shuttle which seemed gigantic just hours ago on the road outside, suddenly becomes tiny inside the VAB. At some point you tell yourself that this place is an optical illusion being done with giant mirrors. But it is not. The building is real and much of the history of manned spaceflight has at one point passed through it.

During this early morning visit to the VAB, I was there to witness space shuttle Atlantis being prepared for its final mission to space this July. Atlantis had been rolled into the VAB the previous afternoon and today a yellow harness was being affixed to it so that two cranes could lift it into a vertical position. From that position the shuttle hangs for several hours as the lifting motion dampens and technicians photograph the heat shield tiles for comparison with photos which will be taken by the astronauts once in orbit. Since the demise of Columbia in 2003, everyone at NASA has taken very seriously the tasks of preventing and checking for damage to any of the tiles or reinforced carbon carbon panels which cover the areas of the shuttle subjected temperatures of up to 3,000 degrees on reentry.

My initial short was short but plenty of photos were taken. While waiting for the first part of the lift to occur, I hoped in my convertible to head down to Port Canaveral. Yes, I still drive convertibles, although it does seem like the cars I pick become a little larger with each trade-in. I recently sat in a MG Midget and the only thought that came to my mind is how did I ever fit comfortably in such a Matchbox-sized vehicle.

Liberty Star prepares to pass through Canaveral Lock with a spent SRB from Endeavour's launch positioned alongside.

My purpose of going to the port was to see Liberty Star haul one of the spent solid rocket boosters, which had helped launch Endeavour just days before, through the Canaveral Lock. A second ship, Freedom, had taken the other SRB through the lock earlier. The SRBs had parachuted into the ocean after separating from the shuttle’s external tank. Shortly after splashdown divers had secured each for floating back to shore. The rocket segments will later be sent by rail back to Utah to be refurbished. It should go without saying, but the SRBs are immense in size themselves. See a pattern here? NASA knows how to do things on a grand scale.

Then it was back to KSC and into the VAB once again around noontime. I’d seen a space shuttle lifted before but this is the first time I’ve seen it go from the horizontal position to the vertical hanging position. While few things other than launches happen quickly at NASA, time often seems to be accelerating when being mesmerized by the intricate ballet of maneuvering a shuttle while it is suspended in mid air. The group I’m roaming around the VAB with today is being escorted by one of the old guys at NASA – former workers who have volunteered to be media escorts. Our escort is Johnny Johnson who has earned a little bit of fame by having a part in the Bruce Willis film Armageddon, He’s the guy atop the launchpad who directs the two shuttle teams to the left and right during simultaneous launches in the movie. Not remotely possible in real life. But since when has reality ever been allowed to interfere with a great special effect in a movie.

Looking down at space shuttle Atlantis from level 16 of the VAB shortly before it is raised by a crane to the top of the building.

Eventually the go ahead is given and the crane slowly raises the shuttle to nearly the top of the 526-foot structure. When standing at level 16 you can look down upon the shuttle as it hangs. Slowly it comes up alongside you and at some point it hits you that the wings of a spacecraft are merely a few feet away from you. The crane continues lifting the shuttle with little apparent noise to be heard anywhere. But this time, everyone is just gawking silently at Atlantis with grins on their faces. The excitement hangs in the air like being a kid on Christmas all over again.

Less than an hour later the entire shuttle is now above us. Obviously this would be a bad time to drop the shuttle. Luckily that has never happened. The crane operator then rotates the shuttle and slides it across the transom 30-plus stories in the air. The shuttle is backed into High Bay 1 and rotated again so it is lined up with the stacked external tank and twin SRBs awaiting below. After checking everything diligently, the shuttle is carefully lowered alongside the rocket stack sitting atop the mobile launcher platform. Eventually it mostly disappears behind the tangle of metal of various transoms and scaffolding platforms. The following morning the technicians will begin the process of mating the shuttle to the rocket stack and then approximately two weeks later one of the two crawler-transporters will deliver the MLP and shuttle stack to the launch pad for further preparations for launch.

One thing you quickly learn watching the shuttle workers is that no job is a simple as it seems and it is vastly more important to do it right than to do it quickly. Rushing a job is not part of the vernacular of NASA. Nor should it be.

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Late Friday morning on July 8 may be a historic moment in America’s timeline. If all goes as planned that day, tens of millions around the world will watch live on TV, the internet or in person as Atlantis soars into orbit for the final time on the final space shuttle mission.

Witnessing a launch is person is a nearly indescribable experience. It is a moment of pure adrenalin as the orbiter rockets through the atmosphere. The launch itself is a spectacle of noise, colors and motion, but most amazing of all is how inspiring it is. Bring a child to a space shuttle launch and I can practically guarantee they will be awe struck and develop an interest in space travel and the sciences involved in making such endeavours possible.

Kennedy Space Center will be having a random drawing for the opportunity to view the launch from within the center’s complex, whether it be at the Visitor Center, the Hall of Fame or from NASA Causeway. Registration for the chance to purchase these sought-after tickets began May 30 and will end at 4 p.m. on Sunday, June 5. The NASA Causeway is by far the top spot to see the launch as spectators will have a view of the launch pad itself.

If you have children and are planning a summer vacation, I highly recommend signing up for tickets and coming to Florida in July. Even if you do not get selected to purchase tickets, there are a lot of other places you can freely view the launch along the central and northern coastline of Florida. On a clear day the launch could be viewed from Disney World, however, I recommend hitting the theme parks either on another day

To register for tickets, go to www.bit.ly/kscatlantis. Still have questions? Feel free to contact me at mchaseclark@gmail.com.

This is your last chance to see a shuttle launch. Come down to Florida for the biggest launch party in the world. Stay in a hotel. Camp on the riverfront. Bring down the entire family in a RV. Doesn’t matter how you get here. Just come, cheer and wave goodbye to the space shuttle – an icon which has come to symbolize American pride and ingenuity every bit as much as baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet.

Atlantis is slowly transported into the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in preparation for the very final space shuttle mission.

The following is the original version of a column I wrote for my hometown newspaper – the Eldon Advertiser – which was published earlier this week. It is the second in a series of articles meant to inform and hopefully inspire current students of my alma mater to pursue careers in the STEM fields – science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

I’ve learned during the past two years that sleep deprivation and excitement overload are the only two states of being when you are a space geek visiting Florida’s Space Coast for rocket launches. I’ve also come to the conclusion that moving to the immediate area doesn’t alleviate that condition one iota.

On Sunday, May 15, I was up at 4 a.m. in order to do my remote camera setup for the launch of space shuttle Endeavour. If you saw my photo last week then you are aware of the results of that early morning’s work. Well worth losing sleep over in my opinion. However, that was only the first of four early days in a row. I was up at 1:30 a.m. the following morning to see the astronauts walk out from their quarters and into the iconic shiny silver Astrovan. And, oh yeah, that was followed by a spectacular launch a few hours later. So once again, no complaints.

Tuesday morning saw me up at 4 a.m. once again so I could witness Atlantis being rolled over from the Orbiter Processing Facility 1 (OPF-1) toward the massive Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). The following morning I was awake early yet again so that I could see the orbiter being lifted from the floor of the Transfer Aisle of the VAB to nearly the top of the 525-foot structure and then moved across the transom into High Bay 1 and lowed back down for mating with the awaiting External Tank and twin Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs).

Workers at Kennedy Space Center, as well as the four astronauts slated for the STS-135 mission, walk in front of Atlantis holding up a banner of support as the space shuttle is transported the short distance from the Orbiter Processing Facility into the Vehicle Assembly Building last week.

After four days of being up pre-dawn, I definitely acquired a new respect for the farmers and bakers and others who make rising at such an unseemly hour their way of life. Luckily for me, I was the son of a banker and got to sleep in past sunrise nearly every morning as a kid. But for those who were rising early to bake the Daylight Donuts with orange icing that I so loved, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. More than two decades later, those are still the best donuts I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating.

Also, if there were any typographical errors, missing words or wrong words in last week’s story, the fault for that rests squarely with me. A lack of sleep had me writing in barely coherent sentences at times I do believe. If the printed story was indeed error free, then all the credit for that goes to the copy editors at the Eldon Advertiser. I recently reread the document which I sent to the newspaper and realized I had made A LOT of mistakes – beginning with the third word. Not my proudest moment as a writer. I’m definitely publicly apologizing for making whomever edited my copy work so hard doing it. Hopefully now that I’ve had a couple days to relax my words actually flow together properly.

At some point during each of the final launches of Discovery and Endeavour, it hit me that this was the final time anyone would ever see that particular orbiter launch into space. Far more emotional though was watching Atlantis enter the VAB last Tuesday morning. After the loss of Columbia during reentry in 2003, it became a tradition for the employees at KSC to create a banner showing their support of each mission and to walk with that banner in front of the orbiter as it was moved toward the VAB before embarking on another mission to space. Hundreds, if not thousands, of workers have signed each banner and the ones from previous missions are displayed within the VAB.

Workers hold up a quilt with patches of all 135 space shuttle missions sewed onto it.

This time though, as Atlantis began the turn into the VAB, workers lined up again with the banner off to the side. Something I had not seen before. Then a few of the workers held up a large quilt with the mission patches of each and every shuttle mission sewed onto it. That was the moment that hit me the hardest. The 30-year space shuttle program is truly ending even as the shuttles seem to be functioning at peak condition.

Even more upsetting to me, is that during the last 18 months, I’ve become friends with a lot of people who work for NASA or the many subcontractors which support the space shuttle program. Some I know only through Facebook or twitter, while quite a few others I’ve met in real life and spent many hours discussing all matters under the stars and beyond. One by one those friends have seen the layoff notices come their way. Later this summer many more of them will be out of a job and like thousands of other space workers wondering what to do next.

So when I was choking back the tears as I watched those workers stand by their beloved Atlantis orbiter one last time, those tears were not just about the end of the space shuttles thundering into space, but also the potential end of the only livelihood that many of my friends have ever known.

Unfortunately, I suspect that many of you have experienced similar emotions during this economic slump in which our country has been mired. May better days find us all soon.

And then there is the speech along the same lines at Rice University.

One long journey is coming to an end and making way for another to begin. NASA announced today that attempts to contact Spirit – the long-lived Mars Exploration Rover – will cease as of Wednesday, May 25.

Spirit made a successful landing on Mars on January 4, 2004 on what was scheduled to have been a 90-day mission. But much like the three-hour tour on Gilligan’s Island, the actual journey lasted much, much longer. Spirit roamed more than 10 kilometers across Mars before becoming stuck in loose soil on May 1, 2009. Attempts to free the plucky rover were unsuccessful before the Martian winter arrived. Spirit was not in optimum position for generating electricity to run internal heaters from its solar panels and has not been heard from since March 22, 2010.

With too little energy to run its survival heaters, the rover likely experienced the coldest internal temperatures of any of its prior six years on Mars and any number of critical components may have been damaged.

Engineers eventually concluded there was a very low probability for regaining contact with Spirit. Communications assets that have been used by to communicate with Spirit in the past – such as NASA’s Deep Space Network of antennas on Earth, plus two NASA Mars orbiters that can relay communications – will now be prepared for NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission. The Curiosity rover is slated to launch toward the Red Planet in November.

“While we no longer believe there is a realistic probability of hearing from Spirit, the Deep Space Network may occasionally listen for any faint signals when the schedule permits,” said Dave Lavery, program executive for solar system exploration.

Spirit landed on Mars on Jan. 3, 2004, for a mission designed to last three months. After accomplishing its prime-mission goals, Spirit kept on going. And going. And going. For more than six years. Spirit had a rough going from early on in the mission, but always seemed determined to continue its expedition of discovery.

A computer memory glitch disabled the rover just weeks after landing. Engineers on Earth eventually diagnosed the issue and came up for a fix for the problem. Sprit eventually discovered evidence that Mars was once a world plentiful with surface water.

With the nearest Jiffy Lube more than 55 million kilometers, the passage of time was not kind to the rover. Five years ago, Spirit’s right front wheel failed. But even that moment of potential disaster became a victory for Spirit. While driving mostly backward, Spirit was able to drag the lame wheel across the Martian surface and revealed materials right beneath the surface that might never have been seen otherwise. Materials such as amorphous silica, which may have been formed within a hydrothermal system on Mars in the ancient past.

Its twin, Opportunity, which landed on the other side of Mars three weeks after Spirit arrived on the surface, is still actively exploring the planet. Opportunity is presently driving toward a large crater named Endeavour in hopes of obtaining close-up view of clay deposits.

For more information on the Mars rovers, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/rovers