Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-134 launches on final mission

Space shuttle Shot this morning, at Kennedy Space Center in Florida: "Endeavour soars by its flag, flying for a last time, as the orbiter embarks on its final mission." Photo by Robert Pearlman.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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Anonymous

Shouldn’t that flag be at half mast now that we’re giving up being a leader in space flight? you know.. no quarterly profits to be had by going to space so… s-can it. The new american way.
- jmcgarry
  
  Yup Anon, the U.S. just is not a leader in space anymore, and companies couldn’t possibly profit from going into space…or could they:
  
  http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/industry/media/private_company_org.gif
  
  I don’t even see SpaceX or some of the other startups on there.
  
  It’s sad the Shuttle era is coming to an end, they were effective at getting a bunch of people and cargo in to LEO; albeit expensive. They look impressively majestic and I’ll miss launch days, especially the last few years where #spacetweeps would light up my Twitter feed like no tomorrow. I hope to see all 5 Shuttles at the various museums.
jmcgarry

I liked this picture from @FlyingJenny of the shadow of the launch plume on the clouds: http://flyingjenny.posterous.com/wonderful-launch-i-loved-the-shadow-that-fell

It was a nice launch. I remember to breath again after MECO. :-)