The Shuttle soared over the Hudson River, looped back down around the Tappan Zee Bridge all the way to the Statue of Liberty, and then circled back towards Queens before making its descent into Kennedy airport.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration plans to send the space shuttle Columbia soaring toward the orbiting telescope on Feb. 28 for an elaborate overhaul and upgrade of what has become one of astronomy's most valuable tools.
The International Space Station and the new solar wings installed by the shuttle crew soared over Florida four minutes before the Endeavour's touchdown, clearly visible from Cape Canaveral as it streaked through the dark sky.
"Orbital Rocket Airplane... Nova Zembla" (ca. 1976) is a faithful depiction of a space shuttle as it soars above an ice-covered body of water, painted when plans for NASA's Space Shuttle Program were underway.
Still, people here are longing for the day a soaring shuttle again stirs awe from places like Paul's Smokehouse, a restaurant in Titusville, just across the Intracoastal Waterway from the space center.
When America's space shuttle fleet was soaring in its prime, this spot was flying with activity, history and most of all astronauts.
I vividly remember that overcast morning in June of 1983, when Sally, NASA's youngest astronaut, was strapped into her seat aboard the space shuttle Challenger, then soared into the history books.
Mission mangers informed the crew that one piece of debris was observed soaring by the shuttle's right wing 83 seconds into the launching and apparently did not hit it.
Prince Sultan was the first Arab astronaut, soaring aloft in the space shuttle Discovery in 1985, before taking over the tourism authority.
Incomes for people at the very top — those highly educated lawyers and economists able to shuttle between Washington and Wall Street — have soared, while middle-class earnings have stagnated, increasing the distance between the establishment and everyone else.
But it suggests that operating costs may soar in the same ruinous way the space shuttle's did.
