Solar Orbiter Launch

On Sunday February 9th the European Space Agency Solar Orbiter lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center on top of an Atlas V rocket. On Sunday evening I was flying down to the Kennedy Space Center to attend the NASA Social event for the State of NASA, and thankfully it looked like my flight would be in time to catch the launch. This would be my first ever.

Amazingly I’ve worked on numerous satellite missions, but I’ve never witnessed a launch in person. As I watched my departure time get delayed later and later I figured my chances of seeing the launch was about zero. When I landed I had a little over an hour to get off the plane, pick up my rental car, and drive the 40 minutes to Titusville from Orlando. I sprinted and thankfully found no lines at the rental car desk. After getting my rental car my GPS said I’d be there with twelve minutes to spare, I cut it close but I made it!

I even had enough time to attempt my first launch picture. Being my first in-person launch I didn’t put a ton of effort into these pictures because I really wanted to enjoy the experience of the whole thing.

I set my camera to 30 second exposure, ISO 200, f/8 and included a 2 second timer to reduce shake. I slipped and missed the button at first so my picture started a bit late. It’s also slightly over exposed, I probably should have done ISO 100 and f/11, but you live and you learn. Ideally I would also own a remote shutter and used bulb mode for a full 2-3 minute exposure to get the full launch arc, but I was limited to the thirty seconds the camera could do.

After moving the camera for another shot the full moon appeared in the frame, fully blown out.

In the 30 second launch streak above you can see some camera shake at the beginning of the image, but it’s not too bad. The full moon is pretty brutal, and it creates some lens flares underneath the rocket too.

And there it goes, off to study the sun!

My first launch is in the books, and can’t wait until the next one!

I was even lucky enough to very randomly run into someone I had previously only spoken with on Twitter. Sometimes the internet really can be a force for good and bring together people with common interests!