This book is the perfect gift for an AvGeek or aerospace enthusiast

If you have an AvGeek, an aerospace enthusiast, or an avid reader in your life and you can’t decide what to get them as a holiday gift, consider buying this new book from the photographer Ted Huetter. In “Waiting for the Spaceship: Scenes from a Space Shuttle-Loving Desert Community,” Huetter documents the thousands of people who would gather to greet the space shuttles upon their return to Earth.

In 30 years – from April 12, 1982 to July 21, 2011 – five orbiters flew into space for NASA’s Space Transportation System, or space shuttle program. These orbiters are Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantic and Endeavor. (The sixth space shuttle, Enterprise, was a non-space flight test vehicle.)

NASA proudly notes that the space shuttles have flown 135 missions. Not only do they continuously put humans into orbit, but they also “launch, recover, and repair satellites, conduct cutting-edge research, and build the largest structure in space, the International Space Station.”

While all space shuttle missions took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, more than 50 of them landed in the Mojave Desert at Edwards Air Force Base in California – about 160 miles from Los Angeles. km.

“Some of the audience came because they helped build the space shuttles,” Huetter wrote. He noted that while many viewers came from greater Los Angeles, “adventurous retirees from around the country took trips from Florida to California in recreational vehicles, ending the trip by launching and landing the space shuttle.”

He added: “The only difficult thing is that they have to watch [the landings] from a harsh desert area about three miles from the runway.”

To accommodate enthusiastic and dedicated spectators, the Air Force will open an authorized viewing site the day before each scheduled shuttle landing, where people can set up camp.

Huetter reported that at that remote location, the military directed traffic and provided drinking water tanks, portable toilets, generators, street lights, a first aid station and a command post. He added that they “generally maintain a low-key and friendly presence.”

Huetter was working in LA and took trips to the desert to camp with space shuttle enthusiasts during eight shuttle landings in the 1980s. He started with STS-4, the mission fourth of the space shuttle Columbia, landing at Edwards Air Force Base on July 4, 1982. STS-4 was also the fourth space shuttle mission overall and the last test flight before the program considered official. work.

“I went there as a fan like most of the people at the public landing site, to experience some of the history of space flight in person instead of watching it on TV,” Huetter said.

For each shuttle landing adventure, Huetter brought his camera equipment along with his camping gear. The photos he took on those trips not only captured a unique part of the Space Age but also showed the observing sites and the people who captured it year after year.

“I quickly fell in love with the photogenic nature of the place and its people,” says Huetter. He explains that every time he returns to this location, his first motivation is to become a space enthusiast and his second motivation is to become a photographer.

That pairing worked well. From 1982 to 1989, Huetter captured what he described as “quiet beauty, quaint charm, and unabashed expression of Americana” during eight space shuttle landings.

His images, taken on film in an era before digital cameras, show landing strips along with a variety of RVs and tents; food and souvenir vendors; and a diverse group of people waiting, mingling, enjoying and welcoming the shuttles home. His selected shots were arranged to create a composite of 24 hours at the campsite, from the first campers’ arrival until the shuttle landed.

“Waiting for the Spaceship: Scenes from a Space Shuttle-Loving Desert Community” includes a foreword by veteran NASA pilot and astronaut Tom Jones. It is available on Amazon for about $25 and from other booksellers.

Want to see the retired space shuttles? Here’s where you can find them.

Space shuttle Atlantis is at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on Merritt Island, Florida. The vehicle is on display in flight alongside dozens of interactive exhibits about the history, technology and impact of NASA’s space shuttle program.

Space shuttle Discovery is on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia.

Space shuttle Endeavor is at the California Science Center in LA. However, it is out of sight as construction of the 200,000 square foot site for the main building is underway.

Space Shuttle EnterpriseNASA’s prototype orbiter, is at the Intrepid Museum in New York City.

The space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff on January 28, 1986. The space shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry to Earth on February 1, 2003.