In celebration of the successful launch early this morning of the Endeavour by CDR Dominic Gorie, his crew and the rest of the NASA launch team, here’s a scan of one of my old photos.
In this image, the Space Shuttle Endeavour leaves Kennedy Space Center’s launch pad 39-A on it’s way to the International Space Station. This was the first Space Shuttle mission to the ISS, and the primary mission was to deliver the Unity Module and to exchange ISS crew.
This launch took place at 3:35am on December 4, 1998, and I was fortunate enough to be watching from the turn basin, about 3 miles from the pad. The photo was taken with a Nikon 4004; this image is a scan from a print.