Ascent: commemorating shuttle (2011)

Photographic documentation of a Space Shuttle launch plays a critical role in the engineering analysis and evaluation process that takes place during each and every mission. Motion and still images enable Shuttle engineers to visually identify off-nominal events and conditions requiring corrective action to ensure mission safety and success. This imagery also provides highly inspirational and educational insight to those outside the NASA family. As the Shuttle Program draws to completion, its launch imagery is more comprehensive and spectacular than ever before. This compilation of film and video presents the best ground-based Shuttle motion imagery from the STS-114, STS-117 and STS-124 missions. Rendered in the highest definition possible, this production is a tribute to the dozens of men and women of the Shuttle imagery team and the 30 years of achievement of the Space Shuttle Program.