NSBNews.net photo by Jeanette DiCara and videos by Sera Frederick / Space Shuttle Atlantis is captured in the distint skies over Edgewater. In the video taken on the beach off Flagler Avenue in New Smyrna Beach, Karl Themann, 45, of Sanford, and his daughter, Madeline Theman, 21, of Wilmington, N.C., express their excitement over seeing the final space shuttle takeoff.
NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Space Shuttle Atlantis rocketed into history this morning as thousands cheered on the hard sands of New Smyrna Beach, tens of thousands more in Brevard County and countless millions across the U.S. through television and the Internet.
Throughout Volusia County, a sense of nostalgia brought people out of their homes and businesses where they could see and hear history in the making with the final shuttle launch just before 11:30 a.m.
"After all these years, there's kind of an empty feeling inside just knowing we will no longer have any more shuttles at all," Osteen resident Lisa DeNauro Toole said. The 53-year-old, who grew up in New Smyrna Beach, said she's "seen so many great lift-offs along with the tragic ones, but will still miss not seeing them anymore."
This photo taken by Oak Hill Commissioner and Vice Mayor Linda Hyatt captures a speck of the Space Shuttle Atlantis (shown just above the van) on the shoreline of Mosquito Lagoon.Oak Hill City Commissioner Vice Mayor Linda Hyatt and her neighbors along Mosquito Lagoon, pointed their cameras to the skies to catch a glimpse of history, knowing full well the photos wouldn't be that great because of the sheer distance to Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral.
"Seeing it gives gives me goosebumps," Hyatt said, referring to the sonic boom of pierrcing the earth's upper atmosphere and the vanishing sight of it catapulting to the International Space Station. "I feel a kind of sadness that an era is over, but I am optomistic that there is more and better things to come."
"Seeing it gives gives me goosebumps," Oak Hill Commissioner and Vice Mayor Linda Hyatt said, referring to the sonic boom of pierrcing the earth's upper atmosphere and the vanishing sight of it catapulting to the International Space Station. "I feel a kind of sadness that an era is over, but I am optomistic that there is more and better things to come."
Below, Tim Loder of Ocala, 50, a manager with AT&T and an avid photographer, speaks with NSBNews.net about his love for the shuttle launches. Watch the Atlantis launch in the video to the right.