NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 Satellite Launch
This is a composite shot covering four minutes of NASA's OCO-2 satellite's journey into space after its launch on a Delta II rocket.
You can see the solid rocket boosters separating and falling towards the right side of the rocket's trail.
2:58 a.m. local (5:58 a.m. EDT; 0958 GMT)
T+plus 1 minute, 50 seconds. "The ATK-made solid rocket boosters have jettisoned from the first stage. They remained attached until the rocket cleared off-shore oil rigs."
You can also clearly see where the second stage ignites towards the left:
3:01 a.m.
T+plus 4 minutes, 39 seconds. MECO. The first stage main engine cutoff is confirmed and the spent stage has been jettisoned.
T+plus 4 minutes, 44 seconds. The Delta's second stage has ignited! The engine is up and running.
T+plus 4 minutes, 51 seconds. The rocket's nose cone enclosing the satellite payload has been jettisoned.
I started capturing thirty-second exposures at 10:32 pm and had it continue during and past the launch, to 4:10 am. I was shooting a time-lapse sequence on a star-tracking mount, having the camera follow the Milky Way across the sky to where the satellite would launch at 3 am.
This composite image uses nine of those photos, to capture the foreground well lit during the initial liftoff, The sky and Milky Way in the image with the rocket and solid boosters falling away, plus seven more flight segments. The pieces were assembled in the free StarStaX software.
NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 Satellite Launch
This is a composite shot covering four minutes of NASA's OCO-2 satellite's journey into space after its launch on a Delta II rocket.
You can see the solid rocket boosters separating and falling towards the right side of the rocket's trail.
2:58 a.m. local (5:58 a.m. EDT; 0958 GMT)
T+plus 1 minute, 50 seconds. "The ATK-made solid rocket boosters have jettisoned from the first stage. They remained attached until the rocket cleared off-shore oil rigs."
You can also clearly see where the second stage ignites towards the left:
3:01 a.m.
T+plus 4 minutes, 39 seconds. MECO. The first stage main engine cutoff is confirmed and the spent stage has been jettisoned.
T+plus 4 minutes, 44 seconds. The Delta's second stage has ignited! The engine is up and running.
T+plus 4 minutes, 51 seconds. The rocket's nose cone enclosing the satellite payload has been jettisoned.
I started capturing thirty-second exposures at 10:32 pm and had it continue during and past the launch, to 4:10 am. I was shooting a time-lapse sequence on a star-tracking mount, having the camera follow the Milky Way across the sky to where the satellite would launch at 3 am.
This composite image uses nine of those photos, to capture the foreground well lit during the initial liftoff, The sky and Milky Way in the image with the rocket and solid boosters falling away, plus seven more flight segments. The pieces were assembled in the free StarStaX software.