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In the News

Last launch

As NASA’s space shuttle program came to a close, photographer Dan Winters scrambled to create a historical document for future generations. He shot the last launches of Endeavour, Atlantis and Discovery. Here are Winters’s thoughts on the experience of shooting the shuttles. On August 6, NASA enters a new phase with its unmanned Odyssey project to Mars.

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Atlantis being lowered into position to mate with liquid-propellant tank

“The genre of shuttle photography has been done to death, but what I was trying to do was really to do a love letter to the shuttle.”

Dan Winters / University of Texas Press

“If you go online and Google ‘space shuttle launch,’ it’s this really weird genre. It’s almost all amateur looking. There’s the landscape and the swamp and an egret flying in front of the shuttle and the reflection in the water.”

Space shuttle main engine nozzle interior

“If you go online and Google ‘space shuttle launch,’ it’s this really weird genre. It’s almost all amateur looking. There’s the landscape and the swamp and an egret flying in front of the shuttle and the reflection in the water.”

Dan Winters / University of Texas Press

“I chose not to shoot any people. No astronauts, no humans, no nothing.”

Discovery’s flight deck

“I chose not to shoot any people. No astronauts, no humans, no nothing.”

Dan Winters / University of Texas Press

“It was just the shuttle representing the vessel that it is to move souls into an experience that is really special and unique.”

Vacuum-packed candy

“It was just the shuttle representing the vessel that it is to move souls into an experience that is really special and unique.”

Dan Winters / University of Texas Press

“I like to find the picture that wouldn’t normally be the picture that someone may pick only because it’s not the set image. Sometimes it’s more of a spontaneous sort of fleeting little happening in front of the camera.”

Endeavour on its pad (May 15, 2011)

“I like to find the picture that wouldn’t normally be the picture that someone may pick only because it’s not the set image. Sometimes it’s more of a spontaneous sort of fleeting little happening in front of the camera.”

Dan Winters / University of Texas Press

“It’s all electronics and sound triggers. Things have to be done the day before and made rainproof and sandbagged, and ropes and cables and all kinds of stuff to support the tripod because the pressure is insane when the engines start.”

Discovery main-engine start (Feb. 24, 2011, 4:53:24 p.m. Eastern time)

“It’s all electronics and sound triggers. Things have to be done the day before and made rainproof and sandbagged, and ropes and cables and all kinds of stuff to support the tripod because the pressure is insane when the engines start.”

Dan Winters / University of Texas Press

“I only shot from a couple angles. I wanted to really celebrate her beauty. I think from the side she’s really not that pretty.”

Atlantis going into its roll program

“I only shot from a couple angles. I wanted to really celebrate her beauty. I think from the side she’s really not that pretty.”

Dan Winters / University of Texas Press

“If there’s any anomaly in the wind direction, there’ve been instances where grass fires have started and cameras were set and they got burned up.“

Fire cloud generated by Discovery solid-rocket boosters

“If there’s any anomaly in the wind direction, there’ve been instances where grass fires have started and cameras were set and they got burned up.“

Dan Winters / University of Texas Press

“I had nine [cameras] around the pad and then held two manually. Endeavour was my favorite launch, but some cameras got smoked out.”

Endeavour passes through the clouds

“I had nine [cameras] around the pad and then held two manually. Endeavour was my favorite launch, but some cameras got smoked out.”

Dan Winters / University of Texas Press

Winters’s book, “Last Launch,” will be published in the fall.

A NASA helicopter passes by Atlantis’s smoke column moments after launch

Winters’s book, “Last Launch,” will be published in the fall.

Dan Winters / University of Texas Press

FEATURED PHOTO GALLERIES

A police forensics officer investigates a crime scene where one man was killed in Woolwich, southeast London May 22, 2013. British Prime Minister David Cameron has called a meeting of his government's emergency Cobra security committee after the killing of a man in south London, his office said on Wednesday. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth (BRITAIN - Tags: CRIME LAW POLITICS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

Terrorism cited in London cleaver attack

Two assailants hacked to death a man reported to be a British soldier on a busy East London street Wednesday afternoon before delivering an apparent...

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 21: Statues on display on the Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden in The Great Pavilion at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show on May 21, 2013 in London, England. The Chelsea Flower Show run by the RHS celebrates its 100th birthday this year. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

Photos of the day

Chelsea Flower Show, face transplant in Poland, Oklahoma residents cope with tornado aftermath and more.

ANNAPOLIS, MD - MAY 20: The Herndon Monument Climb is the traditional culmination of plebe year at the United States Naval Academy. The plebes climb to the top of the lard-covered 21 foot high monument and remove the 'dixie cup' hat at the top replacing it with an upperclassman's hat. After completing this, the freshmen are called 'fourth class midshipmen.' This class completed the task in 1 hour 32 minutes and 43 seconds. The hat was placed by Patrick Lien from Orlando. (Photo by Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

The Herndon Climb

The Herndon Monument climb is the traditional culmination of plebe year at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Lea Bessinger salvages a picture of Jesus as she and her son Josh Bessinger sort through the rubble of the elder Bessinger's tornado-ravaged home Tuesday, May 21, 2013, in Moore, Okla. A huge tornado roared through the Oklahoma City suburb Monday, flattening an entire neighborhoods and destroying an elementary school with a direct blow as children and teachers huddled against winds. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Tornado near Oklahoma City causes more damage

Rescue workers are searching for survivors after a twister carved a long path of destruction in a suburb of Oklahoma City. It was part of the...

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 21: Ken Marino, Erica Oyama, Ben Stiller, Chris Harrison, and Mike Rosenstein aceept the Webby Award for 'Burning Love' at the 17th Annual Webby Awards at Cipriani Wall Street on May 21, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for The Webby Awards)

Eye on entertainment

Ben Stiller, Jerry Seinfeld, Emma Stone, 2 Chainz, Tyrese Gibson, Susan Boyle and more.

This combination of Associated Press photos shows left, a neighborhood in Moore, Okla., in ruins on Tuesday, May 4, 1999, after a tornado flattened many houses and buildings in central Oklahoma, and right, flattened houses in Moore on Monday, May 20, 2013. Monday's powerful tornado in suburban Oklahoma City loosely followed the path of a killer twister that slammed the region in May 1999. (AP Photo)

Okla. tornado loosely followed path of 1999 twister

Monday’s powerful tornado in suburban Oklahoma City loosely followed the path of a killer twister that slammed the area in May 1999.

A Burrowing owl tries to perch on a protective rope in a public park in Cooper City, Fla. Monday, May 20, 2013 as rain falls. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

Fun and fascinating creatures around the world.

A man walks on sulphur and mineral salt formations near Dallol in the Danakil Depression, northern Ethiopia April 22, 2013. The Danakil Depression in Ethiopia is one of the hottest and harshest environments on earth, with an average annual temperature of 94 degrees Fahrenheit (34.4 Celsius). For centuries, merchants have travelled there with caravans of camels to collect salt from the surface of the vast desert basin. The mineral is extracted and shaped into slabs, then loaded onto the animals before being transported back across the desert so that it can be sold around the country. Picture taken April 22, 2013. REUTERS/Siegfried Modola (ETHIOPIA - Tags: BUSINESS SOCIETY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

ATTENTION EDITORS: PICTURE 2 OF 30 FOR PACKAGE 'ETHIOPIA'S ANCIENT SALT TRAIL'
SEARCH 'DANAKIL DEPRESSION' FOR ALL

Ethiopia’s salt trail

For centuries, merchants have traveled to Ethiopia’s Danakil Depression with caravans of camels to collect salt from the surface of the vast desert basin. The mineral is extracted...

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