If you have an AvGeek, an outer space enthusiast or an avid reader in your life and you can’t decide what to give them as a holiday gift, consider buying this new book by photographer Ted Huetter. In “Waiting for Spaceships: Scenes from a Desert Community in Love with the Space Shuttle,” Huetter documents the thousands of people who would gather to welcome the space shuttles on their return to Earth.
For 30 years — from April 12, 1982, to July 21, 2011 — five orbiters flew in space for NASA’s Space Transportation System, or space shuttle, program. These orbiters were Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantic and Endeavour. (A sixth space shuttle, Enterprise, was a test vehicle that didn’t go into space.)
NASA proudly notes that the space shuttles flew 135 missions. Not only did they repeatedly carry people 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 the space shuttle missions 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 spectators came because they had helped build the shuttles,” Huetter wrote. He noted that while many viewers came from greater Los Angeles, “adventurous retirees from around the country made Florida to California treks in the recreational vehicles, book ending the trips with the shuttle launch and landing.”
He added: “The only snag was that they had to watch [the landings] from a harsh patch of desert about three miles from the runway.”
To accommodate the enthusiastic and dedicated spectators, the Air Force would open an authorized viewing site a day before each scheduled shuttle landing where people could set up camp.
Huetter reported that at that remote site, the military directed traffic and supplied tanks of potable water, portable sanitary facilities, generators, streetlights, a first aid station and a command post. He added that they “generally kept a low profile and a friendly presence.”
Huetter was working in LA and made the trek to the desert to camp with the shuttle aficionados for eight of the space shuttle landings during the 1980s. He began with STS-4, the fourth mission for the space shuttle Columbia, which landed at Edwards Air Force Base on July 4, 1982. STS-4 was also the fourth shuttle mission overall and the final test flight before the program was deemed officially operational.
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“I was there as a fan like most of the people at the public landing site, to experience some spaceflight history,” in person instead of watching it on TV, Huetter said.
For each shuttle landing adventure, Huetter packed his camera gear along with his camping gear. The photographs he took during those trips not only document a unique slice of the Space Age but also show the viewing site and the people who gravitated to it year after year.
“I quickly fell in love with the photogenic environment of the site and the people there,” Huetter said. He explained that every time he returned to the site, his first motivation was as a space nerd and the second was as a photographer.
That pairing worked well. From 1982 through 1989, Huetter documented what he describes as the site’s “quiet beauty, quirky charm, and unabashed displays of Americana” over the course of eight shuttle landing forays.
His images, taken with film in the era before digital cameras, show the landing runways alongside a diverse range of RVs and tents; food and souvenir vendors; and a diverse group of people waiting, mingling, enjoying themselves and welcoming the shuttles home. His selected shots are organized to create a composite of 24 hours at the campsite, from the arrival of the first campers to the touchdown of the shuttles.
“Waiting for Spaceships: Scenes from a Desert Community in Love with the Space Shuttle” includes a foreword by pilot and veteran NASA astronaut Tom Jones. It’s available from Amazon for about $25 and from other booksellers.
Want to see the retired space shuttles? Here’s where you can find them.
Space shuttle Atlantis is at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Merritt Island, Florida. The vehicle is displayed in flight, along with dozens of interactive exhibits about the history, technology and impact of NASA’s space shuttle program.
Space shuttle Discovery is on view at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.
Space shuttle Endeavour is at the California Science Center in LA. However, it is off-view while construction of a 200,000-square-foot addition to the main building is underway.
Space shuttle Enterprise, NASA’s prototype orbiter, is at the Intrepid Museum in New York City.
Space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after takeoff Jan. 28, 1986. Space shuttle Columbia disintegrated while returning to Earth on Feb. 1, 2003.
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