(Click for larger image)
We’ve all seen five-million-pound U.S. space shuttles launch, 135 times to be exact.
We’ve all seen them land back on Earth in Florida or California, 133 times to be exact.
But not until the very last space shuttle flight did we ever get to see what the giant craft’s return to the atmosphere looks like — from space.
The crew of the International Space Station caught this unprecedented view above of Atlantis’ fiery re-entry early Thursday morning, Eastern time.
After this photo was taken Atlantis plummeted into and through the atmosphere where its wings could finally do their thing after the vacuum of space. It was going 14 times the speed of sound over Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Atlantis dropped 200 feet per second.
Thirteen minutes later, having circled to scrub off speed, the 225,000-pound glider lumbered over the end of Kennedy Space Center’s Runway 15 for the last time at 205 knots to begin its groundbound retirement. Technicians can’t go beneath the orbiter for 30 minutes after landing, so hot are its protective tiles.
