at the range they are gunna stick you its gunna be a matter of atmospheric conditions, platform stabilization and iso.
any lens you pic, make sure its outside and give it plenty of time to climatize to the temperature and humidity. too much zoom and your gunna pick up thermal distortions as it is depending on the cloud cover... floridas been awal recently, temp in the 30s overnight back to the 60's-70s during the day in that area. depending on what time they launch, you might get alot of wind and thermal updraft which cause heat blur like the mirrage you see on blacktop in the summer at that range.
youll want a fast lens though too, "low fstop" so you can use a faster shutter speed to reduce the blur from vibration. tripod is a must, and id recommend a remote release shutter switch, or time delay shutter release so the motion of you clicking the ****ter wont transmit into the exposure.
id treat it as a night time photograph in terms of technique, telephotos not easy in florida atmosphere!
everything else you could probably fix in photoshop on a raw, youll probably want to bump up the contrast just a tad and the saturation a bit in the reds and blues to get a good definition out of the red tank against the white shuttle and blue sky, assuming its sunny out. polarizer is a great idea, at the very least it will deflect some glare.
at any rate, dont forget to WATCH IT! its one of hte last shuttle flights EVER, do you really want to see it all through a lens? sit back and enjoy it
