Pictures taken of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket during remote camera setup for members of the media on February 5, 2018. The rocket is scheduled for launch, the first ever for the Falcon Heavy, at 1:30pm (ET) on Tuesday, February 6, 2018. (Photos by Michael Seeley / We Report Space)
At 3:45pm (ET) SpaceX and Elon Musk successfully launched the Falcon Heavy rocket from historic Pad 39A at Nasa's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.. Approximately 8 minutes after launch, the two outer cores would return safely to SpaceX's Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. According to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the center core ran out of fuel needed to relight 3 engines for the re-entry burn. The core was unable to slow its descent and it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean at approximately 300 mph. Musk added that he was most interested in recovering the two outer cores, as they flew with titanium grid fins, which are very expensive to make.
In a reflection of how mind-bogglingly spectacular the #SpaceX #FalconHeavy launch was, my initial photo captions were pretty much limited to "Wow" and "Just, wow." This image, in particular, warranted a bit of an explanation, and some shout-outs, and I'm just now getting around to it. Ever since I saw Bill Ingalls' pad streak shot of the Expedition 50 Soyuz launch (here: https://flic.kr/p/PrS16m ), I've been obsessed with pad streaks, and the moment I saw Bill's shot, I knew I wanted to try it on a multi-core rocket. Without traveling to Kazakhstan, that would limit my possible subjects to the Delta IV Heavy or the Falcon Heavy. I've said before that there are few genuinely original shots in spaceflight photography, and it's true here. With this shot, I follow in the footsteps of not only Bill, but also Alan Walters (whose similar shot from Falcon Heavy is amazing, and if you don't believe me, ask Elon Musk himself), Bill Jelen, Ben Cooper and others. So, here is my re-processed pad streak, taken with a camera placed along the crawlerway (near the SpaceX hangar) that was driven by a sound-activated trigger. The final edits involve more detail and more contrast to bring out detail in the colossal exhaust plume created by the beast of a rocket. Specifically, the water suppression system and the huge clamps that hold the rocket to the pad are all more visible (along with some other hardware and the RSS) in this version. High resolution here: Details: ISO100, f22, 20-second exposure, seen through a 10-stop Neutral Density filter. TL;DR: Wow. Just, wow.
