Eagles Guarding Discovery

NASA Photos of US Air Force F-15 Eagle Jetfighters Providing Air Cover Over Kennedy Space Center

Editor’s note: According to an internal NASA memo, “A flight of US Air Force F-15 Eagle Jetfighters helped to provide air cover over Kennedy Space Center and the shuttle launch pad against terrorist attacks during yesterday’s launch countdown of the Space Shuttle Discovery.”

Reader comment: “Just thought you might want to know that the F-15 pictures are not from the pre-launch time frame of the upcomingDiscovery launch. They are post-9/11 photos. One dead giveaway, the pictures of the vehicle on the launch pad are of Pad A, not Pad B where Discovery is located. Theproofof this is in the crawlerway which is curvedjust prior to reaching Pad A and straight just prior to reaching Pad B. It doesn’t mean that F-15’s weren’t patrolling Discovery, just that the photos are old.”