re: Pictures from days gone by....

That's just cool as hell!

Here's the interesting part about the emergency zip lines - at the bunker down at the bottom, there was a modified Bradley Armored personnel carrier that could host the shuttle crew. The policy was that at least one person on every shuttle crew would be trained to drive that carrier.

Now, NASA implements a LOT of safety measures "just in case". I have reservations about the utility of zip lines should there be an explosion or fire on the gantry while the shuttle vehicle was there. What would be holding up the top of the zip lines? And so forth. But I get it, if nothing else for visibility sake.

This was two days before the last shuttle launch. The shuttle itself was completely protected by shielding equipment, as it's tiles are actually very fragile. You're not allowed to touch any part of the shuttle in any way when it is process complete and on the launch pad. And you can't really reach any of the other stuff. The tiles and surface of the shuttle actually gets really beat up when it returns (bonus shot)

Damn...those tiles look like he'll! Thanks for the cool pics

Diana Rigg

Poor trigger discipline

Awesome!