This book is the perfect gift for an AvGeek or outer space enthusiast

24.12.2024 - 17:39 / thepointsguy.com

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.

"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,