STS-119 Over Texas (First Orbit)

STS-119 launched tonight and we had a rare opportunity to see it flying over Texas before it went into a higher orbit and during an engine burn. At the time these photos were taken the shuttle was about over Abilene, at 72 miles up. I used a 300 mm Nikkor zoom lens with 2X converter and with a lot of processing was able to get these shots of the shuttle's belly.

In this first shot you can even make out the shape of the shuttle and which end is the pointy end, despite the blooming reflection of the setting sun.



In this next shot you can see that the orbiter has turned a bit as the nose is swinging from right to left.


This last shot was taken as the orbiter was almost out of site with the shuttle completely turned around and a green flash which I think is possibly the planned engine burn that will put the shuttle into a 150 mile high orbit.



Pretty cool huh?

-Steve