Must have been in the early 80's....81 or 82.. I flew to Bakersfield...rented a car drove to Edwards..at that time they allowed spectators to drive to a hill to the south/east of Edwards that was perfect for viewing the complete landing & roll-out. The hill had signs all over it claiming danger buried shells / bombs but no body paid any attention to them.. hundreds of people viewed the landings from that spot.

The two sonic booms came as the shuttle entered down wind flying east.... once you could see the shuttle on finial it was spectacular... the decent rate was just about on a 40 degree angle! The landing that I saw was fine except, the nose came down very hard.. but rolled out fine. The runway was the dry lake bed.

Believe it or not about two hours later.... after departing Bakersfield... I got clearance from Edwards approach control... direct to Edwards cleared to fly over the center of Edwards at about 1500 AGL shuttle still out on the ramp in front of the hangers! I took a poor quality picture of the shuttle as it sat below...I looked around but can't find the picture or I'd scan it and post it.
Lee H. DeMary
AMA 36099