I shot the larger photo above on 4/10/09 behind my place in Cape Canaveral as this Orion spacecraft mockup was being towed by one of the shuttle booster recovery ships as it was undergoing water testing. The inset photo is courtesy of NASA.

President Obama was at Kennedy Space Center today trying to calm fears over the upcoming layoffs and the potential economic disaster on the Space Coast that will involve laying off thousands of workers when the last space shuttle launches. One plan being offered by President Obama is to use the Orion Spacecraft as a rescue vehicle for the International Space Station.

Yesterday I photographed the Liberty Star at Jetty Park towing one of the solid rocket boosters (SRBs) from the STS-129 mission in which Space Shuttle Atlantis launched from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Nov 16 at 2:28 p.m. EST.

The way the SRBs are retrieved from the Atlantic after a launch is pretty cool. The SRBs themselves will be refurbished and readied for a future shuttle launch from KSC.

The SRBs are 149.16 ft long and 12.17 ft in diameter, weigh 1,300,000 lb at launch.

The possible next generation manned launch vehicle, the Ares 1, launched today from Kennedy Space Center. The Ares 1-X test launch was spectacular. Go NASA!

Here’s my view from my place at the beach in Cape Canaveral .

I recently had the opportunity photograph Space Shuttle Atlantis at Launch Complex 39A during KSC Family Day.

The STS-125 mission will return the space shuttle to the Hubble Space Telescope for one last visit before the shuttle fleet retires in 2010. Over 11 days and five spacewalks, the shuttle Atlantis’ crew will make repairs and upgrades to the telescope.