i capture........Sky

I was just about to post these pictures last week when I saw this week's challenge was "sky". Perfect. In my opinion there is no more fantastic view of the sky as when a shuttle is blasting off to space in it!!!!!!!!

This was the last flight of the space shuttle Atlantis. At this point in the picture above it had burned off 2 million pounds of fuel.

Amazing........I was talking to a friend recently who said she had no interest in seeing this. I said that's because you never had. If you had you would be just amazed. There are seven souls being literally blasted beyond our atmosphere to a place we can only imagine in our minds. It really is breathtaking and spectacular. There are only two shuttle missions left - if your able you should come and see one....its rapidly becoming a once in a life time experience.....

It's plume trailing........

It's space shuttle Atlantis's final lift off May 15, 2010

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

— John Gillespie Magee, Jr