Stunning Photos of Space Shuttle Endeavour’s Flight Deck (Cockpit)
These rare photos by Ben Cooper capture the Flight Deck
(cockpit) of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, fully powered for one of the
final times. Just a few weeks later, at 9:58am EDT on May 11, Endeavour
was powered down for the final time in history. It was the last of the
three space shuttles to have power.
Ben Cooper is
freelance/media photographer and former NASA photographer currently
based out of Daytona Beach, Florida, and serving the Central & North
Florida area, including Cape Canaveral. He has covered launches and
other events at Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center since July
1999, and photographed over 100 missions and launches to date.
For
the final few years of the Space Shuttle program, he photographed for
NASA and held a position on NASA’s photo and engineering imaging team at
the Kennedy Space Center & Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Work
included mission-critical imagery of the shuttle’s exterior and orbiter
tiles that ensured a safe mission of the space shuttle on every flight,
as well as public affairs imagery for distribution by NASA and dozens of
portraits and award ceremonies.
Below,
other views show the mid-deck, gutted of its lockers and storage areas,
and three final photos show the white room entrance in the Orbiter
Processing Facility, signed by thousands over the years.
