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In-flight iPhone snaps Space Shuttle launch

by Chris Rawson May 17th 2011 at 9:00AM

The picture at right isn't something you see every day, and it's something there'll only be one more chance to capture: a Space Shuttle launch photographed from an in-flight passenger jet. Stefanie Gordon shot this image of the Space Shuttle Endeavour's launch with her iPhone as her plane descended for a landing.

The shot itself is a rare enough event, but what happened next was an eye-opener for the photographer. According to Mashable, within a few hours of uploading the launch pics to Twitter from her iPhone, Stephanie was getting phone calls from ABC, CNBC and the BBC. Her follower count on Twitter went up by over 1000, and she was getting so many @mentions as a result of the pic that she had to shut them off so her iPhone's battery didn't get drained.

Other people on the plane took pics, but apparently none of them uploaded them to Twitter. The real draw of this story isn't that the photo was taken with an iPhone -- people use the device to take extraordinary pics all the time -- but the colossal and immediate response the photographer got after sharing it. This scenario shows just how interconnected everything has become today thanks to devices like the iPhone, and it's a trend that's only going to become more powerful as more people start sharing information this way.



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The picture at right isn't something you see every day, and it's something there'll only be one more chance to capture: a Space Shuttle...
 

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Paul

Sad that this is one of the last shuttle launches the US will do.
We've passed the baton for space to private industry, and pushed all our remaining space race stuff, into covert cold war type ops, where nobody will know what's going into space any more.



:M

May 19 2011 at 8:11 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
bork

The moral of the story here is to avoid TwitPic, whose terms of service grant TwitPic a sublicensable/transferrable license to your content.

So, any news agency is free to buy their rights to that picture from TwitPic without paying Stephanie a dime.

May 18 2011 at 2:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
RobFuz

I was on a plane leaving Florida at the same time as well! The captain came on and mentioned you could see it out the right side and back. Unfortunately I did not have a window seat and could not see it :(. Oh well. GREAT SHOT !

May 18 2011 at 9:35 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
R

CNN's iReporter actually has 10 photos taken by the pilot of this
commercial airline. Definitely a Must See!!

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-608206

May 18 2011 at 7:17 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Craig Stanton

Great shot, but I'm surprised they let commercial flights be in the air during launch. Especially if they've decided that after this one it won't be safe to launch any more :-/

May 17 2011 at 3:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Edsel

"This scenario shows just how interconnected everything has become...."

It has, in a very worker bee/ant kind'a way, unfortunately.

May 17 2011 at 11:03 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
windex

I want my fame too! I saw Discovery (STS-119) launch during a flight from Orlando-NYC

http://www.flickr.com/photos/markhambly/sets/72157618610485579/

May 17 2011 at 10:13 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to windex's comment
A_Hawkins

Unfortunately that's not the last flight.

May 17 2011 at 10:27 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Cris

Your pics are pretty bad dude... LOL

May 17 2011 at 2:53 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
tavis08

Lol

May 17 2011 at 10:01 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Nick

yet everyone seems to have forgotten about the person that got video while on a plane of Discovery's last launch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE_USPTmYXM

May 17 2011 at 9:43 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kirby

Nothing in the post says at what point in the descent this was taken (note that they're still above the clouds). A plane starts its descent long before you're required to turn off electronics. You're making an assumption, Carl, that's not necessarily true!

May 17 2011 at 9:27 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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