Challenger Through the Clouds
by Weston Westmoreland
Title
Challenger Through the Clouds
Artist
Weston Westmoreland
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Space Shuttle Challenger, through the clouds, Somewhere above Florida, 06/18/1983.
There is something truly awe-striking in this image. The space shuttle, actually a huge and powerful piece of engineering, appears tiny, dwarfed, when confronted with the immensity of the planet the gravity of which it is trying to overcome. Considering the Earth itself a tiny "pale blue dot" lost in the dark immensity of the universe, this image is the perfect metaphor of how small but daring we are.
On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly in space when the space shuttle Challenger launched on mission STS-7 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The STS-7 crew consisted of astronauts Robert Crippen, commander, the first two-time space shuttle astronaut; Frederick H. Hauck, pilot; and three mission specialists -- Ride, John M. Fabian and Norman E. Thagard.
This view of the liftoff with the shuttle rising proud above the large cumulus clouds was photographed by astronaut John W. Young, who piloted the Shuttle Training Aircraft (STA) for weather monitoring at launch and landing sites for STS missions.
One of Sally Ride's jobs was to call out "Roll program" seven seconds after launch. "I'll guarantee that those were the hardest words I ever had to get out of my mouth," she said later.
Original image by NASA, further enhancements by Weston Westmoreland.
More NASA and Hubble enhanced images one copy-paste away in my gallery at https://weston-westmoreland.pixels.com/collections/astronomy
Weston Westmoreland
Uploaded
February 17th, 2020
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