Stunning Photos of Space Shuttle Endeavour’s Flight Deck (Cockpit)

These rare photos by Ben Cooper capture the Flight Deck (cockpit) of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, fully powered for one of the final times. Just a few weeks later, at 9:58am EDT on May 11, Endeavour was powered down for the final time in history. It was the last of the three space shuttles to have power.

Ben Cooper is freelance/media photographer and former NASA photographer currently based out of Daytona Beach, Florida, and serving the Central & North Florida area, including Cape Canaveral. He has covered launches and other events at Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center since July 1999, and photographed over 100 missions and launches to date.

For the final few years of the Space Shuttle program, he photographed for NASA and held a position on NASA’s photo and engineering imaging team at the Kennedy Space Center & Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Work included mission-critical imagery of the shuttle’s exterior and orbiter tiles that ensured a safe mission of the space shuttle on every flight, as well as public affairs imagery for distribution by NASA and dozens of portraits and award ceremonies.

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Below, other views show the mid-deck, gutted of its lockers and storage areas, and three final photos show the white room entrance in the Orbiter Processing Facility, signed by thousands over the years.

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