This morning I managed to drag my arse out of bed at 6:30a.m. Those of you who know me are aware that me awake and moving prior to 8:30a.m. is nothing short of miraculous. I am a space flight fan – yeah I know some of you are anti space exploration – as a kid I loved anything and everything about the Apollo Rockets and the lunar rover. The grainy black and white transmission from the first moon landing enthralled me as a child. It still does.
The end of the NASA Space Shuttle program – an end to an era – saddens me. So, how could I not take advantage of heading up to a helipad atop on of Sacramento’s buildings? I could not! It is a rare to be allowed access to the top of a city building anymore. The last helipad I was on was atop the Renaissance Tower post 9/11. A few of us returned to our long standing once a week lunch up there only to be interrupted by folks in full Armour because someone from another building called us in as terrorists . … So when the invitation was offered yesterday afternoon I jumped on it! A couple of the folks up there this morning were past co-workers and it was fun to catch up with them. All the surrounding buildings had people on the helipads or on the top levels of the parking garages.
The shuttle came out of the southern horizon flew over the capitol building made a circle and came back from the northern horizon. It still amazes me how something as large as a 747 can fly let alone one with a space shuttle piggy backed on it. I toured the Boeing plant and watched workers building 747’s and came away remembering how huge they were and wondering what would happen if a worker missed a few rivets.
Well around 20 of us courtesy of the building manager sat atop the building and took photos of the people atop near by buildings as they took pictures of us LOL. Then the 747, Endeavour piggybacked, along with the military escort became a faint dot in the horizon.
A few of the shots I took:
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Well, I got up early, made it up the stairs for the last few floors where the elevator ride ended, waited for the Endeavor and it’s 747 ride, I am now headed off to take a nap!
your pictures are fantastic! i bet it was loads of fun being up there. growing up in houston, we had field trips to the space center almost every year in school. it was amazing to be there. my great uncle was an engineer for NASA and helped develop the heat resistant tiles for the shuttle program. tmi, i know…
your pictures are beautiful!
It was fun and exciting the shuttle flew so low it was amazing – it was hugh – it was exciting!
I remember you telling me about your uncle before. Never TMI when it comes to all things space exploration! without heat resistant tiles – well instant incineration . …
I did get to the Stennis Space Center and I hope to go visit the Endeavour in LA sometime.
OMG how cool is that! The top of the building thing scared the dickens out of me, but you sure got some great photos. Thanks for sharing!
Peace,
Muff
It was interesting up there. The set up of this buildings helipad was way more comfortable. The building in the first pic has a circular pad with climb up to it. On it you truly could fall off onto the lower roof top! This building has a wire grid surrounding the square around the pad and then the roof top edge where the local news cameraman was standing is also surrounded by a good rail – never felt like yikes if I slip I will be a goner LOL.
Way cool! Am glad you got to do this. Not a shabby place to have taken lunches either. Hope it was good seeing old co-workers.
Thanks for sharing the pics…later…
Hiya Donna!
It was cool. Kind of fun looking over to where I took lunches and seeing some of the people I knew looking back over at us.
The shuttle atop the 747 was HUGH as it flew by – amazing . …