Atlantis' Middle

Atlantis' Vertical Stabiliser reaches out towards us.
The NASA meatball adorns Atlantis' port wing.
Atlantis' business end. Below it is the work area on the upper surface of the grey Mobile Launch Platform, delineated by grey and yellow safety railings.

Wow! Now we were level with the Space Shuttle's Main Engines. Right there in front of me were those amazing pieces of engineering that have many times thrust Atlantis and her sisters into outer space. Three black main engines, underneath the orbiter, faced downwards. They were still covered in the red protective caps that had protected them from potentially damaging dust during the roll-over from the Orbiter Processing Facility several days earlier. These covers would be removed shortly before liftoff in several weeks time.

Pointing towards me, seemingly to almost touching distance, was the Atlantis' Vertical Stabiliser, its white surface rimmed by black thermal tiles.

Looking slightly up were the bulging white and black thermal tile covered Orbital Manoevering System pods, their thruster ports covered with protective seals.

Stretching above that was the wide white expanse of the cargo bay doors. Closed now, they would yawn wide open once Atlantis reached orbit. The boundaries of these two curved doors were delineated by thin black lines.

Craning my neck back, I could see, way above me, the Atlantis' cockpit and the orange tip of the external tank reaching even higher from behind it. The white cylindrical solid rocket boosters disappeared behind the black edged white wings that stretched wide to either side of our field of view. At our level the details of the Atlantis' cargo bay doors were clearly delineated.

Looking to the sides we could see all bar portions of the lowest parts of the Orbiter's delta wings, with the word "Atlantis" writ large in black on one of them.

One part of the vehicle was not visible from this vantage point. The black tile covered belly of Atlantis faced away from us towards the External Fuel Tank and the black night air beyond the yawning door of the building.

The entire vehicle sat on the grey rectangular slab of the mobile launch platform. It was not easy from this elevated level to see any part of the beast of burden, the tracked Crawler Transporter. This last, seemingly insignificant vehicle, measures 40 metres by 35 metres.

I got busy taking lots more photos, racing to get them before we would get the inevitable "Please leave now" request ahead of the imminent beginning of the rollout to the pad.

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