Woke up at 3am to capture this rocket launch from Williamsburg, Va, which is 80 miles from the NASA Wallops flight facility. About 8 30 second exposures stacked.

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We spent a few days in the Black Rock Desert at Balls 27, the wild west event of high power rockets. People push the limits with their experimental rockets. There are experimental home-brew motors, speed and altitude record setting attempts, multiple stages and engine clusters. The general rule of thumb is to try to launch projects that are not legal anywhere else. Teams arrive from Japan, Austria, Argentina, and other countries.

This particular "ThreeCarbYen" rocket is built by Jim Jarvis, and has three stages, with a N5800 motor for the first stage, a N1560 for the second, and a M1401 for the third. The second stage has active stabilization. The sustainer (3rd stage) reached about 175K feet (53 km) altitude, learned after analyzing the data - the GPS stops working at about 160,000 feet! The reached altitude is half way into space - space begins at the Karman line at an altitude of 100 km.

I took this photo with a 600mm lens from a safe distance of 2 miles away. You can see some distortion caused by pockets of air that changes density quickly on hot days.

I processed a balanced HDR photo from a RAW exposure, and carefully adjusted the color balance and curves. I welcome and appreciate constructive feedback.

-- ƒ/6.7, 600 mm, 1/500 sec, ISO 100, Sony A7 II, Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, _DSC3424_hdr1bal1h.jpg

-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography

I had heard about this launch in advance and wanted to photograph it from my patio, as we have an almost unobstructed view to the west. I set up in advance and the launch occurred at exactly 8:40 pm PT and appeared as a tiny red streak to the northwest. Then the streak became a larger white-ish streak heading south. Eventually this "fish" shape formed, and then the payload streaked to the south. In this image, a small white "something" can be seen in the exhaust, which is the first stage booster, which then flew itself to a drone ship sitting in the Pacific Ocean to the south. Amazing (although I still don't like EM - ha!).

From lower North Peak, Cuyamaca Mountains, San Diego County, California.

June 18, 2024

We spent the last three days at Balls 29, a big experimental rocket launch event in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada - the same place where Burning Man takes place. A big rocket is launched every few minutes.

The majority of the rockets are experimental, people often mix their own solid propellant. With this about 1/3 of the launches fail, some with a big bada boom. For safety, the bigger the motor, the farther away the launch. This launchpad is 1500 feet away from the rocket camp. Big rockets ascend 100,000 feet or more, which is 3 times higher than the cruising altitude of commercial aircraft. The fastest rockets reach Mach 5 (5 times the speed of sound, 3800 MPH, 6100 km/h), and pull up to 80 g.

The black smoke of this rocket is from a commercial Aerotech K850 "sparky motor”, burning bits of titanium sponge produce the sparks. My rocket buddy Steve Jurvetson has flown Vertical Assault many times, this time to 11'000 feet. He duct taped a camera to the rocket, you can see it on the left side about half way up. We recovered the rocket, it is now in our garage. However, the camera ripped off at high speed of up to Mach 1. We searched for a while but could not find it on the playa.

I processed a balanced and a realistic HDR photo from a RAW exposure, blended them selectively, and carefully adjusted the color balance and curves. I welcome and appreciate constructive comments.

Thank you for visiting - ♡ with gratitude! Fave if you like it, add comments below, like the Facebook page, order beautiful HDR prints at qualityHDR.com.

-- ƒ/6.3, 210 mm, 1/2000 sec, ISO 200, Sony A6000, SEL-55210, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, _DSC7514_hdr1bal1rea1g.jpg

-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography

SpaceX started Star Wars Day right, launching a batch of Starlink satellites at 3:31am (ET) on Thursday, May 4th.

This is the Falcon 9 rocket streaking across the sky seen from Palm Shores, Florida.

#maythe4thbewithyou

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Next Saturday we will go to the Snow Ranch in the California Central Valley east of Stockton to launch rockets. The event is organized by LUNAR, the biggest rocket club in the USA. My son just turned 18 and will attempt level 1 certification for high powered rockets. Anybody interested in joining us? This photo is from the January launch at Snow Ranch, showing a smoke trail of a high power rocket.

I processed a balanced HDR photo from a RAW exposure.

-- © Peter Thoeny, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, NEX-6, _DSC3441_hdr1bal1e

Thank you for visiting - ❤ with gratitude! Fave if you like it, add comments below, get beautiful HDR prints at qualityHDR.com.

Last weekend we went to the Black Rock Desert for the Mudroc rocket launch event. Steve Jurvetson launched his fiberglass rocket called Warped Reality. The 12 feet rocket had a big N1560 motor and went supersonic, reaching over 19,000 feet in a few seconds. We found the lower fuselage quickly, then searched for the upper fuselage for quite some time. Almost giving up, my son suddenly spotted something orange way out. This is the hurrah moment after we retrieved it about 7 miles north near the Black Rock, seen in the background.

I processed a balanced HDR photo from a RAW exposure, and carefully pulled the curves.

-- © Peter Thoeny, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, NEX-6, _DSC9062_hdr1bal1c

We spent last weekend at Balls 28, a big experimental rocket launch event in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada - the same place where Burning Man takes place. A big rocket is launched every few minutes. The majority of the rockets are experimental, people often mix their own solid propellant. This black smoke trail is from a commercial "sparky motor", where the sparks are produced by burning bits of titanium sponge. Notice the people and car for scale.

I processed a balanced and a photographic HDR photo from a RAW exposure, merged them selectively, and carefully adjusted color balance and curves. I welcome and appreciate constructive comments.

Thank you for visiting - ♡ with gratitude! Fave if you like it, add comments below, like the Facebook page, order beautiful HDR prints at qualityHDR.com.

-- ƒ/7.1, 145 mm, 1/2000 sec, ISO 200, Sony A6000, SEL-55210, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, _DSC4255_hdr1bal1pho1h.jpg

-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography

New Smyrna Beach

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Today we went to launch rockets at the DairyAire event in the California Central Valley near Fresno. This event is organized by TCC (Tripoli Central California).

Someone built a Star Wars themed rockets. There are so many creative rocket builders!

I processed a balanced HDR photo from a RAW exposure.

-- © Peter Thoeny, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, NEX-6, _DSC7442_hdr1bal1e

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Last weekend we joined a rocket launch event at a big Californian ranch called Snow Ranch, located east of Stockton. The event is organized by LUNAR, the Livermore Unit of the National Association of Rocketry. Tony Cooper, a committee member launches his piñata rocket. Candy rains out of the sky to the delight of children.

I processed a balanced and a soft HDR photo from a RAW exposure, merged them selectively, and carefully adjusted the curves and color balance.

-- © Peter Thoeny, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, _DSC1832_hdr1bal1sof1f.jpg

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On Saturday I joined Tripoli Central California's rocket launch event in a farm field at Helm, near Fresno, California. I launched my mid-power rocket made of cork. Yes, it's an expensive rocket if you count the number of corks.

The corkscrew rocket is always a crowd pleaser, it has a big motor for a small rocket, and it corkscrews on the way up because the fins are mounted with a slight angle that makes the rocket rotate. The flight up to about 1000 feet was perfect, although the landing was kind of hard, and the rocket cracked in the middle. No biggie, this rocket has been flying so many times, and I have been repairing it a number of times.

I processed a balanced and a soft HDR photo from a RAW exposure, merged them selectively, and carefully adjusted the curves and color balance.

-- © Peter Thoeny, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, NEX-6, _DSC5268_hdr1bal1sof2d

Liftoff of an Antares rocket supporting mission NG-18 from the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Wallops Island, Virginia. The photo was taken with a Nikon D7100 I had picked up on eBay a few weeks ago. The camera was used as a remote, meaning I had to set it the day before and leave it. Setup includes choosing the right location , staking the tripod to the ground, adjusting the exposure for what you think will work, taping the lens and taping a hot hands to it, and finally adding a miops sound trigger and covering it with plastic.

You can read my writeup of the mission here:

www.spaceflightinsider.com/missions/iss/ng-18-cygnus-carg...

www.spaceflightinsider.com/missions/iss/penultimate-antar...

DSC_5358-3

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Over the weekend we went to a remote place in California's Mojave desert to launch a big rocket called HARP - High Altitude Rocketry Program. My son was leading a student team at San Jose State University for the past 9 month.

It is a two stage rocket about 15 feet (4.5 m) tall, and 4 inch (10 cm) diameter. The booster (lower stage) has a big N-motor, the sustainer has an even bigger O-motor. Both are solid state - the fuel is a rubber compound, the oxidizer is ammonium perchlorate. The rocket has a lot of electronics and several cameras. It simulated to reach 150,000 feet (46 km) - half way into space, with a top speed of Mach 3.8 - almost twice as fast as a rifle bullet.

The initial launch went well. With a rocket this size you usually need to be 2500 feet (700 m) away from the launch. We were close, very close - but safe in a bunker. The launch was very loud, leaving a smoke trail that disappeared into the sky.

We did not see the sustainer light up, e.g. no secondary smoke trail. That meant trouble. We had to hide again in the bunker. A minute and 25 seconds after launch we heard a loud explosion. 2 miles (3.3 km) out we saw plumes of smoke rising up in the desert. The sustainer came in ballistic and exploded on impact. It created an 8 feet (2.5 m) crater!

The team was in good spirit, despite the obliterated rocket. They will analyze the data and remains to find out what went wrong. Elon Musk once said, "if things are not failing, you are not innovating enough."

I processed a balanced and a interior HDR photo from a RAW exposure, merged them selectively, and carefully adjusted color balance and curves. I welcome and appreciate constructive feedback.

-- ƒ/6.3, 193 mm, 1/2500 sec, ISO 100, Sony A6000, SEL-55210, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, _DSC3347_hdr1bal1int3c.jpg

-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography

Thank you for visiting - ❤ with gratitude! Fave if you like it, add comments below, like the Facebook page, order beautiful HDR prints at qualityHDR.com.

Last year we went several times to the Black Rock Desert to launch high power rockets. This was in June at the Mudroc rocket launch event. Steve Jurvetson launched his fiberglass rocket called Warped Reality. The 12 feet rocket had a big N1560 motor and went supersonic, reaching over 19,000 feet in a few seconds. We found the lower fuselage quickly, then searched for the upper fuselage for quite some time. Steve's son stands on top of the SUV trying to locate the vessel with an antenna. We almost gave up, but then my son suddenly spotted something orange way out. Bingo, we found it!

I processed a balanced HDR photo from a RAW exposure, and carefully adjusted the curves.

-- © Peter Thoeny, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, NEX-6, _DSC9051_hdr1bal1d

I took this photo in the wee hours of the morning from the beach at Sebastian Inlet State Park which is about 50 miles (ca. 80 km) south of the Kennedy Space Center. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 58 Starlink satellites and 3 Skysats into orbit successfully. The first stage also landed on the SpaceX drone ship Of Course I Still Love You. The view from the beach as the rocket launched and the satellites deployed was spectacular.

We spent a weekend at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada to attend Balls XXX, the biggest experimental rocket launch event in the world. The camp is in the middle of a dry lakebed, also called playa, the same place where Burning Man takes place. The playa is big, about 200 sq mi (520 km2). The night sky is very clear, you can see the Milky Way and millions of stars with your bare eyes because there is no light pollution. My rocket buddy Steve Jurvetson poses with a big rocket motor on our comfy chair below the Milky Way. It became a tradition to take the throne along to the desert every year.

I processed a balanced and a photographic HDR photo from a JPG exposure, blended them selectively, and carefully adjusted the color balance and curves. I welcome and appreciate constructive comments.

Thank you for visiting - ♡ with gratitude! Fave if you like it, add comments below, like the Facebook page, order beautiful HDR prints at qualityHDR.com.

-- ƒ/2.8, 12 mm, 15 sec, ISO 3200, Sony A7 II, Rokinon 12mm F2.8, HDR, 1 JPG exposure, _DSC0274j_hdrj1bal1pho1ori1a.jpg

-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography

Starlink 4-20 takes flight!

At 10:09pm Sunday, #SpaceX sent another batch of Starlink satellites to orbit atop a many times flight-proven #Falcon9 rocket. This was the view from a busy A. Max Brewer Bridge in Titusville.

Gemini 1 at the moment of ignition, 11:00:01 a.m. EST, April 8, 1964, Launch Complex 19, CCAFS.

8.5” x 10.875”.

Note the reddish appearance of the Titan II’s exhaust. A telltale indicator of it being produced by a hypergolic fuel mixture. Even if you have no idea what that is, doesn’t it just look toxic & corrosive? Which it indeed is.

“Gemini 1 was an uncrewed orbital test of the Titan 2 launch vehicle, the Gemini spacecraft structural integrity, and the launch vehicle-spacecraft compatibility. The test covered all phases through the orbital insertion phase. Other objectives were to check out launch vehicle-spacecraft launch heating conditions, launch vehicle performance, launch vehicle flight control system switch-over circuits, launch vehicle orbit insertion accuracy, and the malfunction detection system. This was the first production Gemini spacecraft and launch vehicle.

Mission Profile

Launch of Gemini 1 took place at 11:00:01 a.m. EST (16:00:01.69 UT) from Complex 19. Six minutes after launch, the Titan 2 booster placed the Gemini spacecraft and the attached 2nd stage in a 160.5 x 320.6 km orbit with a period of 89.3 minutes. An excess speed of 22.5 km/hr sent the spacecraft 33.6 km higher than planned. Mission plans did not include separation of spacecraft from the 3.05 meter diameter, 5.8 meter long Titan stage 2, both orbited as a unit. The planned mission included only three orbits and ended about 4 hours 50 minutes after launch with the third pass over Cape Kennedy. The spacecraft was tracked until it reentered the atmosphere and disintegrated on the 64th orbital pass over the southern Atlantic on April 12. The systems functioned well within planned tolerances and the mission was deemed a successful test.

Spacecraft and Subsystems

The Gemini spacecraft was a cone-shaped capsule consisting of two components, a reentry module and an adaptor module. The adaptor module made up the base of the spacecraft. It was a truncated cone 228.6 cm high, 304.8 cm in diameter at the base and 228.6 cm at the upper end where it attached to the base of the reentry module. The re-entry module consisted of a truncated cone which decreased in diameter from 228.6 cm at the base to 98.2 cm, topped by a short cylinder of the same diameter and then another truncated cone decreasing to a diameter of 74.6 cm at the flat top. The reentry module was 345.0 cm high, giving a total height of 573.6 cm for the Gemini spacecraft.

The adaptor module was an externally skinned, stringer framed structure, with magnesium stringers and an aluminum alloy frame. The adaptor was composed of two parts, an equipment section at the base and a retrorocket section at the top. The reentry module consisted mainly of the pressurized cabin designed to hold the two Gemini astronauts. Two instrumentation pallets were mounted in place of the couches which would normally hold the astronauts. The pallets carried some 180 kg of pressure transducers, temperature sensors, and accelerometers. Separating the reentry module from the retrorocket section of the adaptor at its base was a curved silicone elastomer ablative heat shield. The module was composed predominantly of titanium and nickle-alloy with beryllium shingles. Dummy packages and ballast was used to simulate normal spacecraft weight and configuration for systems not required for this flight.”

Above per:

nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1964...

Credit: NSSDCA website

Also:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_1

Credit: Wikipedia

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In September 2014 we went to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada to attend XPRS, a rocket launch event organized by AeroPac. The next one will be on the June 17 weekend, I am looking forward to it!

We are about to retrieve our corkscrew rocket that flies on a mid-power G64 motor. It is built out of wine corks and corkscrews on the way up, hence the name. We have been launching this rocket so many times. Today I am repairing it, last time it came down ballistic on the runway at Moffett Field - the parachute did not deploy properly.

In the back you see our desert camp and another rocket take off.

I processed a balanced HDR photo from two RAW exposures and blended them.

-- © Peter Thoeny, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, NEX-6, _DSC7482_5_hdr1bal1g

Antares rocket composite of 31 photos. Used to resupply the Space Station

Military surplus Store, Seattle WA.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 launches the Cargo Dragon 2 spacecraft to the International Space Station for the CRS-25 mission, seen all the way from Freeport, in the Bahamas. With it being a clear evening and the rocket launching roughly twenty minutes after sunset, it created this distinct "jellyfish" effect in the sky thanks to the way that the already set sun hit the gases exhausted by the craft. With it lighting up the sky in this way and my first experience watching a launch from another country, this is now one of my favorite launches ever!

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Last weekend we spent three days in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada to attend Aeronaut, a rocket launch event organized by AeroPac. My son launched a new minimum diameter rocket that reached 18,100 feet, and reached a top speed of Mach 2.6. It was a lot of fun!

You can drive on the playa (dry lake bed) at high speed. It is quite safe, there is no police around, and you can see other moving vehicles by the huge dust cloud they cause. The playa is gypsum, a compressible and very fine-grained material.

I processed a balanced HDR photo from a RAW exposure, then desaturated the result.

-- © Peter Thoeny, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, NEX-6, _DSC4316_hdr1bal1i

Thank you for visiting - ❤ with gratitude! Fave if you like it, add comments below, get beautiful HDR prints at qualityHDR.com.

Recently we went to the Black Rock Desert over a weekend for the Mudroc rocket launch event. Steve Jurvetson launched his fiberglass rocket called Warped Reality. The 12 feet rocket had a big N1560 motor and went supersonic, reaching over 19,000 feet in a few seconds. We retrieved it about 7 miles north.

A camera crew captured the launch with this high speed camera. At full 2048 x 1536 resolution, the i-SPEED 716 can capture 5,000 frames per second. At lower resolution it can go up to 500,000 FPS. The camera has 72GB high speed RAM to temporarily store the footage. That is a lot of data; it takes almost an hour to download a few seconds of high-speed footage to disk. I'll post the link to the footage once I know.

I processed a balanced HDR photo from a RAW exposure.

-- © Peter Thoeny, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, NEX-6, _DSC9017_hdr1bal1d

Update 2016-07-04: Steve Jurvetson posted a video compilation of this launch; it includes a short footage of the high-speed camera: YouTube video & more photos.

We attended high power rocket launches at the Friends of Amateur Rocketry launch site in the Mojave desert of California. My son works at the Naval Postgraduate School in the rocket propulsion lab. The Navy team launched two high power rockets to test a guidance system for fins. These rockets are complex, with redundant avionics, and onboard cameras. You can see the pivot point at the fin mounts. Notice also the 3D printed black shock absorbers at the end, designed to get crushed when the rocket hits the ground while dangling on the main parachute. My son checks the checklist to increase the odds of a successful flight.

I processed a balanced, a paintery, and a photographic HDR photo from a RAW exposure, blended them selectively, and carefully adjusted the color balance and curves. I welcome and appreciate constructive comments.

Thank you for visiting - ♡ with gratitude! Fave if you like it, add comments below, like the Facebook page, order beautiful HDR prints at qualityHDR.com.

-- ƒ/8.0, 55 mm, 1/400 sec, ISO 125, Sony A6000, SEL-55210, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, _DSC7993_hdr1bal1pai5pho1f.jpg

-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography

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Recently we spent a day in a big farm field near Helm in the Central Valley of California for LDRS, a big yearly rocket event where people arrive from all over the USA. Signs at the flight line warn of the risks involved in rocketry. I think the fun outweighs the risk.

I processed a balanced HDR photo from a RAW exposure, carefully adjusted the curves, and partially desaturated the image. I welcome and appreciate your critical feedback.

-- ƒ/5., 55 mm, 1/4000 sec, ISO 200, Sony A6000, SEL-55210, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, _DSC5704_hdr1bal1e.jpg

-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography

Early morning launch of Orbital ATK's Antares Rocket from NASA's Wallops Island facility taken from Oyster, on Virginia's Eastern Shore. This launch will use the Cygnus cargo freighter to resupply the International Space Station.

21May2018

Thank you for viewing and make sure to look at my other images.

Prints available at: photosbymch.com

© 2018 M. C. Hood / PhotosbyMCH Photography - All rights reserved.

On Saturday I helped out at a low power rocket launch event at the Moffett Federal Airfield at NASA Ames, located in the Silicon Valley. This event organized by LUNAR typically draws a few hundred participants. It's heartwarming seeing so many young folks getting excited about science. Next year the rocket club unfortunately can no longer launch rockets at this location. Google leased the airport along other parts of the NASA Ames campus, and has other plans for this airport.

I processed a balanced and an photographic HDR photos from a RAW exposure, merged them selectively, and carefully adjusted the color balance and curves. I welcome and appreciate constructive comments.

Thank you for visiting - ♡ with gratitude! Fave if you like it, add comments below, like the Facebook page, order beautiful HDR prints at qualityHDR.com.

-- ƒ/9.0, 56 mm, 1/500 sec, ISO 200, Sony A6000, SEL-55210, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, _DSC6705_hdr1bal1pho1f.jpg

-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography

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Yesterday we joined a rocket launch event at a big Californian ranch called Snow Ranch, located in the Central Valley east of Stockton. The launch site is at a remote location - once you enter the ranch you drive for two miles on a dirt road. The event is organized by LUNAR, the biggest amateur rocket club in the USA, and probably in the world. At 01:00pm around 150 cars where on the scene, meaning there were between 400 and 500 people.

This photo was taken around 04:00pm when many people already left. Our cork rocket takes off; it is built entirely of wine corks, except for the wooden fins. It corkscrews on the way up to about 1000 feet on a G64-7 motor.

I processed a balanced HDR photo from a RAW exposure, and carefully adjusted the curves and color balance. I welcome and appreciate your critical feedback.

-- © Peter Thoeny, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, Sony A7 II, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, _DSC3886_hdr1bal1i.jpg

I went to our local rocket launch, this rocket here has an 8 pound bowling ball on it.This rocket shot up around 8,000 feet into the sky. It was pretty cool to see in person.

SpaceX Starlink -6-45 - North Bridge

At 3:10am (ET) Monday, SpaceX sent a batch of Starlink satellites to orbit.

This was the view from Titusville as the Falcon 9 passed near the crescent Moon.

While you were sleeping (probably): At 3:10am (ET) Sunday, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket, sending a batch of Starlink satellites to space.

This was a particularly beautiful launch (hopefully, the 1st of 2 today), seen here from Merritt Island over the Banana River, with bonus lightning over the Atlantic.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket delivering 60 Starlink satellites into orbit on May 9, 2021. This was the 10th flight of the first stage booster which landed safely on the barge Of Course I Still Love You.

In 2022 we spent a weekend at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada to attend Balls XXX, the biggest experimental rocket launch event in the world. The camp is in the middle of a dry lakebed, also called playa, the same place where Burning Man takes place. The playa is big, about 200 sq mi (520 km2). We had time for some model shoots between rocket launches. It became our tradition to take this comfy vintage chair along into the desert every year.

I processed a balanced HDR photo from a RAW exposure, carefully adjusted the color balance and curves, and desaturated the image. I welcome and appreciate constructive comments.

Thank you for visiting - ♡ with gratitude! Fave if you like it, add comments below, like the Facebook page, order beautiful HDR prints at qualityHDR.com.

-- ƒ/6.3, 82 mm, 1/1250 sec, ISO 200, Sony A6000, SEL-55210, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, _DSC4755_hdr1bal1h.jpg

-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © 2022 Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography

After two last second scrubs a few months ago, ULA's Delta IV Heavy finally launches into the stars carrying the secretive NROL-44 payload a couple of nights ago above OUC's Indian River power plant. I admit that I was almost emotional, considering that I had spent so much trying and failing to see this one launch. Additionally, that this is my favorite rocket and Delta IV Heavy will be retired in a few years so this is one of my last chances at capturing one, Despite this, it was but also a rather nerve-wracking one, as I had to stand on some active railroad tracks and it was unforgivingly cold for Central Florida. Nonetheless, I’m pretty proud of this considering that I have had limited success with night launches, but many times of trial and error finally paid off!

For the first time in several nights, the rumble coming from the skies Sunday night wasn't thunder: #SpaceX successfully launched (& later landed) a #Falcon9 rocket carrying another batch of #Starlink satellites to orbit.

This was the view from Cocoa Beach & the Banana River:

The Ariane 5 launch vehicle liftoff for flight VA261 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 5 July at 23:00 BST (6 July at 00:00 CEST). Flight VA261 carried two payloads into space – the German space agency DLR’s experimental communications satellite Heinrich Hertz and the French communications satellite Syracuse 4b. The flight is the 117th and final mission for Ariane 5, a series which began in 1996.

Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja

The fourth Spacebus Neo satellite to benefit from ESA’s Neosat programme has launched into space on board the second Ariane 5 launch mission of 2022.

The 8.9 metre, three-storeys-high communications satellite – which will deliver high-speed broadband and in-flight connectivity across Europe for its operator, Eutelsat – weighs 6.525 tonnes and accounted for 99% of the 6.62-tonne launch mass.

Called Eutelsat Konnect Very High Throughput Satellite, it includes several innovative features developed under an ESA Partnership Project with satellite manufacturer Thales Alenia Space.

The satellite was launched at 23:45 CEST (18:45 local time) on 6 September from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, into a sub-synchronous transfer orbit. This highly elliptical trajectory, which loops from close to Earth to up to 60 000 kilometres away from the planet at an inclination of 3.5°, will enable it to transfer into a geostationary orbit some 36 000 kilometres above Earth.

After reaching geostationary orbit the satellite – the tallest ever built in Europe – will be tested further before it enters commercial service.

The satellite features new antenna deployment and pointing mechanisms used within the antenna tracking system, as well as other innovative features including next-generation batteries and structural panels, all developed under the ESA Partnership Project.

Credits: ESA / CNES / Arianespace / Optique vidéo du CSG - P. Piron

A #SpaceX #Falcon9 rocket meets the 98.9% illuminated Moon as it carries the Intelsat G-33/G-34 payload to orbit.

What a show this was. Well done,

@elonmusk

& team!

I was invited to take photos of a big rocket launch by a space startup company at Friends of Amateur Rocketry, a private rocket launch facility in the Mojave Desert in California. The team worked through the night to get the rocket ready, first in the shop, then at the launch pad.

The rocket took off with a big roar; we could feel the sound in our tummy. We were a mere 300 ft (100m) away from the launch area, safely in bunkers. This rocket had an S-size solid motor, producing 8 tons of thrust at liftoff, and 20 G acceleration. The artful patterns are the scorch marks on the deflection plate after the launch. The plate deflects the vertical flames to horizontal in order to protect the concrete below.

See photos of this event on FB at bit.ly/3xdBlNH

I processed a photographic and a realistic HDR photo from a RAW exposure, blended them selectively, and carefully adjusted the color balance and curves. I welcome and appreciate constructive comments.

Thank you for visiting - ♡ with gratitude! Fave if you like it, add comments below, like the Facebook page, order beautiful HDR prints at qualityHDR.com.

-- ƒ/8.0, 50 mm, 1/2000 sec, ISO 200, Sony A7 II, Canon 50mm f0.95, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, _DSC4178_hdr1pho1rea1e.jpg

-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket and SBIRS GEO Flight 5 mission for the United States Space Force sit on the pad at Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) at Cape Canaveral at sunset. Photo Credit: United Launch Alliance

How to launch and land a rocket five times; a master class by Elon Musk and #SpaceX.

This was the epic view of the #Starlink #Falcon9 launch from Titusville, Florida and the A. Max Brewer Bridge.

Liftoff was at 1:12am on Friday, August 7, 2020.

(Pic: me/ @WeReportSpace)

At 11:25pm (ET) Wednesday, March 22, 2023, Relativity Space made history, successfully launching their 85% 3D-printed Terran 1 rocket.

The rocket successfully made it through Max-q, quite an accomplishment for the first flight.

#GLHF

This coming weekend we will be at Balls 28, a big experimental rocket launch event happening in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada - the same place where Burning Man takes place. Would you like to join?

This photo is from a few years back when Steve Jurvetson launched his fiberglass rocket called Warped Reality. We located the rocket with a directional antenna, and drove right to it.

I processed a balanced HDR photo from a RAW exposure, and carefully adjusted color balance and curves. I welcome and appreciate constructive comments.

Thank you for visiting - ♡ with gratitude! Fave if you like it, add comments below, like the Facebook page, order beautiful HDR prints at qualityHDR.com.

-- ƒ/8.0, 55 mm, 1/800 sec, ISO 100, Sony NEX-6, SEL-55210, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, _DSC9059_hdr1bal1d.jpg

-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography

A SpaceX Falcon 9 launches the twenty-second batch of Starlink satellites at 6:01 this morning, just before the first light of the morning. This is actually the first Falcon 9 booster to successfully launch and land nine times, thus being the current fleet leader. I must also wish you happy Pi Day, which is the perfect holiday to launch a rocket on!

Liftoff!

That's the SpaceX Falcon9 rocket carrying the GPSIII-SV04 satellite to orbit, with a special guest appearance by Mars (to the right of the streak).

The successful launch took place at 6:24 pm (ET) on November 5, 2020, from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Congratulations to Elon Musk and the entire SpaceX team!

ESA’s latest interplanetary mission, Juice, lifted off on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French 09:14 local time/14:14CEST on 14 April 2023 to begin its eight-year journey to Jupiter, where it will study in detail the gas giant planet’s three large ocean-bearing moons: Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.

Juice – Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer – is humankind’s next bold mission to the outer Solar System. This ambitious mission will characterise Ganymede, Callisto and Europa with a powerful suite of remote sensing, geophysical and in situ instruments to discover more about these compelling destinations as potential habitats for past or present life. Juice will monitor Jupiter’s complex magnetic, radiation and plasma environment in depth and its interplay with the moons, studying the Jupiter system as an archetype for gas giant systems across the Universe.

Following launch, Juice will embark on an eight-year journey to Jupiter, arriving in July 2031 with the aid of momentum and direction gained from four gravity-assist fly-bys of the Earth-Moon system, Venus and, twice, Earth.

Flight VA260 is the final Ariane 5 flight to carry an ESA mission to space.

Find out more about Juice in ESA’s launch kit

Credits: ESA - M. Pédoussaut