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Joe Steinbring

Florida

A space shuttle’s bright flame atop a column of white smoke, rising into clouds above trees.
Atlantis lifts off on STS-135, the last shuttle mission, on July 8, 2011.2011 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring
Static offline map showing Florida in the United States with a location pin.

In July 2011, I went down to Florida to see the last Space Shuttle launch. I booked the trip on a whim at the last moment, I was excited about it, and it was my first time in the state. On July 7, the day before the launch, I took the bus tour of the Kennedy Space Center. From the observation gantry at Launch Complex 39, Atlantis stood on Pad 39A under a sky full of storm clouds, and at the Apollo/Saturn V Center, a complete Saturn V is laid out on its side over the visitors’ heads, and you can touch a 17-gram piece of the Moon from Apollo 17. On launch morning, the lawn around the Rocket Garden at the visitor complex filled up with people in folding chairs. Atlantis lifted off at 11:29 a.m. on July 8, 2011, on STS-135, the 135th and last mission of the shuttle program, and I watched it climb over the trees and into the clouds from beside the Space Mirror Memorial.

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  • A launch tower with a space shuttle beside it, far off across green scrub under storm clouds.

    Atlantis on Pad 39A the day before the launch, from the observation gantry.

    2011 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring

  • The huge engine bells of a Saturn V rocket in a hangar, beside a hanging Apollo 7 mission patch.

    The first-stage engines of the Saturn V at the Apollo/Saturn V Center.

    2011 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring

  • A big crowd in folding chairs on a lawn, in front of a garden of tall white rockets.

    Launch morning on the lawn by the Rocket Garden.

    2011 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring

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