If you have an AvGeek, space enthusiast or avid reader in your life and can’t decide what to give them a holiday gift, consider buying this new book by photographer Ted Huetter. In “Awaiting Space Shuttles: Scenes from a Desert Community That Loves the Space Shuttle,” Huetter documents the thousands of people who would gather to welcome the space shuttles back to Earth.
For 30 years – from April 12, 1982, to July 21, 2011 – five orbiters flew into space through NASA’s Space Transportation System, or space shuttle, program. These orbiters were Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantic and Endeavour. (The sixth spacecraft, Enterprise, was an experimental vehicle that did not enter space.)
NASA proudly notes that space shuttles flew on the 135th mission. Not only did they repeatedly carry humans into orbit, but they also “launched, recovered and repaired satellites, conducted cutting-edge research and built the largest structure in space, the International Space Station.”
While all of the space shuttles took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, more than 50 of those missions landed in the Mojave Desert at Edwards Air Force Base in California — about 100 miles from Los Angeles.
“Some viewers came because they helped build the shuttles,” Huetter wrote. He noted that while many viewers are from Greater Los Angeles, “retirees who are veterans from around the country are making the Florida to California trip in recreational vehicles, booking and completing the trip with a shuttle start and landing.”
He added: “The only distraction is that they had to watch [the landings] in a difficult desert area about three kilometers from the runway.”
To accommodate enthusiastic and dedicated spectators, the Air Force will open an authorized viewing area the day before each scheduled shuttle landing where people can camp.
Huetter reported that at that remote site, soldiers directed vehicles and provided drinking water tanks, sanitation facilities, generators, street lights, a first aid station and a command post. He added that “they usually keep a low profile and a friendly presence.”
Huetter worked in LA and took desert camping trips with astronauts on eight space shuttle missions during the 1980s. He began with STS-4, the fourth space shuttle mission of Columbia, which landed at Edwards Air Force Base on July 4, 1982. operations.
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“I was there as a fan like most of the people in the public space, to experience some of the history of space flight,” in person instead of watching it on television, Huetter said.
For each shuttle landing, Huetter packed his camera gear and camping gear. The photographs he took during that trip not only document a unique piece of the Space Age but also show the observatory and the people who entered it year after year.
“I quickly fell in love with the photogenic nature of the site and its people,” Huetter said. He then explained that every time he came back to this site his first inspiration was as a space professor and second as a photographer.
That pairing worked well. From 1982 to 1989, Huetter recorded what he described as “quiet beauty, dramatic beauty, and obscure Americana shows” during the eight steps of the shuttle’s landing.
His photos, taken on film in an era before digital cameras, show runways lined with a variety of RVs and tents; food and souvenir vendors; and a diverse group of people waiting, mingling, enjoying and welcoming shuttles home. His selected shots are arranged to create a composite of 24 hours at camp, from the arrival of the first campers to the touch down of the shuttles.
“Waiting for the Space Shuttle: Scenes from a Desert Community That Loves the Space Shuttle” features a foreword by pilot and veteran NASA astronaut Tom Jones. It is available on Amazon for about $25 and at other booksellers.
Want to see retired space shuttles? Here’s where you can find it.
Space Shuttle Atlantis is at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on Merritt Island, Florida. The vehicle is on display with an airplane, as well as many interactive exhibits about the history, technology and impact of NASA’s space shuttle program.
Space shuttle Discovery is on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia.
Space shuttle Endeavor is at the California Science Center in LA. However, it is not seen while construction of a 200,000-square-foot addition to the main building continues.
The Space Shuttle Enterprise, NASA’s prototype orbiter, is at the Intrepid Museum in New York City.
The space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff on Jan. 28, 1986. Space shuttle Columbia disintegrated while returning to Earth on Feb. 1, 2003.
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