The Final Voyage of Space Shuttle Atlantis

I was fortunate once again to get tickets to view a shuttle launch from the NASA Causeway, and this one was absolutely spectacular.  The weather was almost perfect and although it was very hot, we had a very nice breeze that made the long wait very pleasant.  This was the final launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis on Friday May 14, which was taking supplies to the International Space Station.  

Although this is the 3rd launch I've witnessed from the NASA Causeway, they never get less exciting.   It was difficult to get good photos prior to the launch this time because there were visible heat waves making the view through the camera a little bit wavy as Atlantis sat on the launch pad.

As the countdown gets down to around 6 seconds, you can watch the shuttle's main engines fire and try to get a few photos before the solid rocket boosters fire and the smoke plume completely blocks the view of the space shuttle for people viewing it from the south.

The next trick is to be ready to get more photos as the shuttle emerges from behind the smoke.  

It's not until about 30 seconds after launch that you actually hear it, since we are slightly over 6 miles away. But once you hear it, you also feel it, and the rumble as it climbs skyward is something that everyone should get to experience.

The shuttle climbs just a short distance before it begins to roll to the side.

Only about 2 minutes into the flight, the solid rocket booster engine separation occurs and the shuttle continues into orbit on it's own three engines.  In the photo above, you can see the puff of smoke when the booster engines separate from the space shuttle. 

In the  photo below, you can see the solid rocket boosters completely separated from the shuttle as it continues onward.  The bright white dot below and to the right of the solid rocket boosters is the flame coming from shuttle's three main engines as it flies away from us.  This photo is a 100% crop from the actual image.

This is the last scheduled flight of Space Shuttle Atlantis.  Unless the US Congress does something to extend the program, the only way it will fly again is possibly as an emergency backup to one of the two remaining shuttle flights by the other orbiters.

The Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery sts-131

The Challenge of Photographing a Pre-Dawn Launch

Early this morning we drove down to Cape Canaveral to watch the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery.  We arrived at 3am to allow time to board a bus and set up our cameras on the NASA Causeway for the scheduled 6:21 am launch.   The launch was originally set for the afternoon of March 18th but due to cold weather in Florida, the preparations to the launch vehicle could not be completed in time for that date.  Because the shuttle launch has to be synchronized with the orbit of the International Space Station, the launch time gets 25 minutes earlier for each day it is delayed.   That's how we ended up with a pre-dawn launch, which is much more challenging to photograph. 

Today we were fortunate that everything went very smoothly and the weather cooperated very nicely as well.  Discovery lifted off right on schedule at 6:21am.   It was a nice cool morning approximately 60 degrees, which is what I consider perfect weather.  

Below is a chronological sequence of launch photos.  There were over 20 images in this series but I am only showing 5 of them.  The camera settings I used were vastly different for the first few photos, before the shuttle cleared the launch tower.  Once it cleared the tower and the huge flame from the solid rocket boosters became visible, I had to raise the shutter speed from 1/100 second to 1/640 second to prevent the photos from being completely washed out.  Since I knew the smoke plume would billow out toward us and momentarily block our view of the shuttle after the solid rocket booster ignition, I used this 1 to 1.5 second interval to adjust my shutter speed.   I was ready when the shuttle emerged from behind the smoke and I had the right settings thanks to a good friend from the Marshall Space Flight Center in Montgomery, Alabama who advised me early this morning.  Thanks, Joby!

[ click any photo to enlarge ]

Ignition of Discovery's 3 main engines.

Flaming up

Firing Solid Rocket Boosters (here comes the smoke plume)

Discovery emerges from behind the smoke plume.

The photo below shows the International Space Station as it flew overhead 17 minutes before the shuttle launch.   I snapped a few photos as it passed between us and the moon, getting both in the frame. 

[click photo to enlarge]

Finally, here's one that Cindy snapped right before the launch.  Since we were in total darkness, I  look like deer in someone's  headlights from the camera flash.

Additional images can be seen HERE.

    

Launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis

Yesterday I had the opportunity to view the launch of the Space Shuttle from the NASA Causeway, and it was one of the most exciting things I've ever witnessed. I had seen several launches before, but never from this close. My normal viewing site was always the rooftop of a business on US Highway 1 in Titusville, which according to Google is just a smidgen over 13 miles from the launch pad. But after getting lucky enough to purchase tickets for this launch, I was only 6 miles away.

The day started out very cloudy and I was skeptical that it would even launch as my brother and I were driving down from Jacksonville. It's about 2 1/2 hours drive and we hardly saw any blue in the sky most of the trip. The forecast was for a 70% chance of favorable weather and we kept hoping the clouds would blow past before the 2:28pm launch time. As luck would have it that's exactly what happened, and Atlantis was headed up toward the international space station exactly on time after a picture perfect liftoff. This was a welcome change for me personally, because the last time I had causeway tickets, I made 4 trips to Kennedy Space Center only to have the launch scrubbed all 4 times.

For viewing from the NASA Causeway visitors are required to arrive well in advance, with arrival times being assigned to everyone who is lucky enough to purchase tickets. There is quite a crowd of people and the arrival times are staggered so that everyone does not arrive at the same time. Our arrival deadline was 11am for the 2:28pm launch, but we arrived around 9:30.

The image above is heavily cropped to show the detail. But the images in the flight sequence below are the full width of the original image, but most of them have been cropped in the other direction only enough to create an 8x10 aspect ratio. The close up images were shot with a 300 f2.8L IS lens and Canon 2x extender on a 40d body, and the wider shots were done with a 100-400 and 28-135 lens on my Mk2N. I'm always reluctant to use the 2x extender but it usually works out ok on the 300 f2.8.

Additional images can be seen on my website here.

For a look at a night launch, check out The Launch of Space Shutle Discovery