Unique Perspective: Shuttle Launch as Seen from Airplane, Balloon, and Freefall

By Nancy Atkinson - February 28, 2011 03:33 PM UTC | Space Exploration

I thought I had a great view of space shuttle Discovery's final launch, seeing it from the Kennedy Space Center press site. But there were a few other people who had a pretty unique perspective on the launch. A passenger on an airplane, Neil Monday, who was flying out of the Orlando, Florida airport, recorded the shuttle launch with his iPhone, above. That is just awesome. Want more unique views of the launch?

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The students from

Quest For Stars

who were attempting to capture an image of Discovery's launch from a high altitude balloon (

see our preview article

) were successful and the team has released a couple of images, including the one above. They say they will be releasing the "best of the best" of their images later this week at the Next Generation Suborbital Research conference. They have a great video of their balloon popping, sending their payload into a quick freefall.

[caption id="attachment_83627" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Fred Leslie jumps from an aircraft as Discovery lifts off behind him. Image via the Hunstville Times, courtesy of Fred and Kathy Leslie."]

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Speaking of freefall, former astronaut Fred Leslie and his wife Kathy wanted to do something special to commemorate Discovery's final launch. They jumped from an aircraft over Deland, Fla., and timed it so they could get a photograph with Discovery taking off in the background.

Read more about it in the Huntsville Times.

And of course, if you want to see more launch images, we have a

great gallery of the STS-133 launch

as seen by our cadre of reporters and photographers who were on hand for Discovery's historic launch.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com