Visiting Space Shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center

2009-11-05 - Non-pilot astronaut candidates—including Canada's David Saint-Jacques--spent six weeks at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida for an accelerated initiation to the flying of high-performance aircraft through a mixture of lectures, simulator work and actual flight. The candidates therefore went on several cross-country flights including one to the Kennedy Space Center, the site of NASA's launch facilities where they had the chance of seeing Space Shuttle Atlantis up close, as it was getting readied on the launch pad. David Saint-Jacques is seen here with the shuttle tanks behind him. (Credit: NASA)