No Bikes, So Here’s the Space Shuttle …

With the start of the Tour de France this past week, I was expecting the usual deluge of gorgeous imagery of guys in brilliantly colored racing … suits? … pedaling through the French countryside. I like to bike, but just for entertainment and relaxation, so my fascination with coverage of the Tour is a little odd – I couldn’t care less who wins, I just want to see the photos …

So, since I can’t share that with you, here are a couple of galleries of something I really do care about: NASA’s Space Shuttle program. After 30 years of service, the last flight will launch on Friday. I had always dreamed of making it to a launch, have wanted to since I was a kid, but it’s not going to happen. Some people lament having missed Woodstock, I will forever regret having not seen a shuttle launch.

The galleries …

• Alan Taylor’s In Focus photo blog at The Atlantic has a great collection of historic, behind the scenes images dating back to the design phases of the shuttle fleet. (Image five made me laugh out loud.)
• The Denver Post’s Captured shows us the drama of a shuttle launch, flight and landing as well as a look at the astronauts themselves.
• Red Huber at the Orlando Sentinel has been covering the shuttle story for decades and he put together a series of portraits of the people behind the shuttle that build it, launch it and repair it.

Seen more galleries? Sent them in and I’ll post them.