Photographing SpaceX Launch/Landing

 As you know, I am a big fan of photographing a variety of things, most of them natural, and some of them man-made. For some reason, maybe living on the Space Coast for over 40 years, I love taking photos of launches. Part of it is the chance to get a great shot, but it is really about watching a launch live. My cousins Harry and Patrick now know the feeling after I took them to see a launch/landing by SpaceX in early January. Well, on January 31 at 6:11 PM, another wonderful launch happened.

I should mention that this launch was originally scheduled a few days before, but the cold weather was causing it to be scrubbed. This launch is for an Italian Satellite and it had an instantaneous launch window. That means it had to go at the set time or not go at all. After three delays, the last being caused by a cruise ship, the launch happened just after sunset, a great time for viewing (and photographing) a launch.

Now how does a cruise ship cause a rocket delay? Well, Port Canaveral is on Cape Canaveral where the launches and landings (if not on a drone ship) take place. The landing area is close to the port and a ship was within the danger zone as it was leaving the Port. Therefore it was scrubbed. Well, there still were ships leaving the port on this launch day. I could see that the Disney and Royal Caribbean ships were already on their way in the Atlantic, and the Carnival ship was getting ready to depart but it had to make a turn so it was heading out.

As launch time was fast approaching, the ship was trying to leave the port and get out of the danger zone. I heard one lady say "The cruise lines are not so dumb to do it two days in a row, are they?" Well, they were cutting it close as I watched it pass me at Jetty Park with the sun setting causing a beautiful orange glow.

Then it was 6:11, time for launch or time for scrub. Right on time was saw the glow of the Falcon 9 lifting off from the launch pad...

Rising quickly over the horizon, the rocket was on its way. The green buoy is in the Port's channel and you can see that the rocket lifts off to the left of it.

Being that the sun was down, it was dark enough that the fire streaming out of the rocket dominates the image, but the sun was starting to reflect off of the rocket as it got higher.  The ghost image is the rocket flame reflecting on my lens. I think they may have filters to fix that.

Although the rocket is almost 230 feet long, you can see that the flames are even longer.

There is usually a short contrail on this rocket launch, the setting sun was making some pretty colors on it...

Another great thing about this launch is that it had a southern trajectory. It has only been in recent years that they started to do these out of Cape Canaveral. It was always deemed hazardous to fly over populations of people. What it allows me as a viewer is a longer time to take photos.

The Falcon 9 is a two stage rocket. Stage one, after doing the heavy lifting, detaches from the payload which has a second stage with its own engines. Stage one rocket is what SpaceX is landing and reusing. Normally, you may see the rocket separate as a dot, but because where the sun was, it was being lit up differently, allowing us to see the separation and vapors.

The first stage heads off to the left (upper) and the second stage ignites and continues to the south.

After a while, you can see the separation. Normally, I do not see this because in a day launch, the sun is too bright to see the vapors, and at night, it is too dark to see. But at dusk, it was just dark enough for us to continue to see what was happening.

Then the first stage started making little vapor clouds as it was adjusting itself for its flight back to earth. I think you can see that the rocket is spinning

Because of the sun, I could see the second stage longer. Two little rockets separated from it. I guess I need to look up what these pieces are. I had never seen this before because the normal North East launch flight is going away from us, not over us like this one.

The first stage kept visible too and then the rocket does an initial firing as it is dropping back to the earth at a speed much faster than sound. This shot was the rocket re-firing and leaving a contrail.

Then for about a minute, the rocket free drops without a lit engine and then it pops back on, slowing the rocket down for a safe landing.

The rocket slows down incredibly to where it is moving very slowly. Check out videos of a landing, it comes down just like the sci-fi movies of the 1950s. Also, note that the landing is to the right of the green buoy, which was also in the initial launch shot. One other fun thing is the sonic boom caused by the rocket going so fast. At the port, it will rattle your bones.

From my perspective, it was a successful launch and landing. I will check to see if the Italian satellite made it to orbit. If you ever get to watch a launch, make sure it is just after sunset, it is a surreal display of modern technology.