Photographing an Antares rocket launch at Wallops Island
Photos and text by Dylan Slagle
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- Carrying Orbital ATK’s eighth planned Cargo Resupply Mission to the International Space Station, an Antares rocket blasts off from the launch pad at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia Sunday, Nov. 12, 2017. The launch, originally scheduled to blast off Saturday, was delayed by 24 hours after an airplane strayed into the launch area. (Dylan Slagle/Baltimore Sun Media Group)
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- A sequence of images captured by a sound triggered Nikon N90s film camera set about 150 yards away during the launch of the Antares rocket Sunday morning. (Dylan Slagle/Baltimore Sun Media Group)
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- Photographers, including news media and participants in NASA Social, a program where the agency engages with active social media users to cover NASA events, line up at the press viewing site, about two miles from the launch pad, to photograph the launch. (Dylan Slagle/Baltimore Sun Media Group)
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- An Antares rocket carrying Orbital ATK’s eighth cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station sits on the launch pad at dawn at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia Sunday. The Cygnus spacecraft is named for Gene Cernan, the NASA astronaut who is the last person to have walked on the moon. It will deliver about 7,400 pounds of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory and its crew. (Dylan Slagle/Baltimore Sun Media Group)
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- The Antares rocket that will carry Orbital ATK’s eighth planned Cargo Resupply Mission to the International Space Station waits on the launch pad at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia at dusk Friday, Nov. 10, 2017. (Dylan Slagle/Baltimore Sun Media Group)
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- An Antares rocket carrying Orbital ATK’s eighth cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station blasts off from the launch pad at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia Sunday. The Cygnus spacecraft is named for Gene Cernan, the NASA astronaut who is the last person to have walked on the moon. It will deliver about 7,400 pounds of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory and its crew. (Dylan Slagle/Baltimore Sun Media Group)
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- News media photograph an Antares launch vehicle during a tour of the Horizontal Integration Facility at the launch site, where final assembly of the vehicles takes place, Friday, Nov. 10, 2017. (Dylan Slagle/Baltimore Sun Media Group)
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- A modified toolbox, mounted on a tripod, serves as a protective housing for a digital still camera, GoPro video camera and electronics to photograph the launch remotely from about 200 yards from the launchpad. The tripod is staked into the ground to keep it from being knocked over by weather or the blast of the rocket. (Dylan Slagle/Baltimore Sun Media Group)
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- A modified toolbox, mounted on a tripod, serves as a protective housing for a digital still camera, GoPro video camera and electronics to photograph the launch remotely from about 200 yards from the launchpad. (Dylan Slagle/Baltimore Sun Media Group)
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- With overnight temperatures expected in the 20’s, disposable 18-hour hand warmers pull double duty in this remote camera housing – they keep the GoPro video camera lens warm so it doesn’t get covered in morning dew, and keep the batteries warm in a timer that activates the GoPro and a separate, electric dew heater for the still camera lens. (Dylan Slagle/Baltimore Sun Media Group)
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- Various methods, ranging from elaborate housings, to less elegant solutions, are employed to protect remote camera setups from overnight weather while waiting for the launch. The cameras for Sunday’s Antares launch were set up Friday afternoon. (Dylan Slagle/Baltimore Sun Media Group)
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- Workers prepare the Antares rocket that will carry Orbital ATK’s eighth planned Cargo Resupply Mission to the International Space Station at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia Friday, Nov. 10, 2017. (Dylan Slagle/Baltimore Sun Media Group)
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- Photographers take photos of the Antares launch vehicle during a tour of the launch site Friday, Nov. 10, 2017. (Dylan Slagle/Baltimore Sun Media Group)
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- Saturday morning’s Antares rocket launch carrying Orbital ATK’s eighth planned Cargo Resupply Mission to the International Space Station was aborted just before liftoff after an aircraft was detected in the vicinity of the launch pad at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia Nov. 11, 2017. The launch has been rescheduled for Sunday morning at 7:14 a.m. (Dylan Slagle/Baltimore Sun Media Group)
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- Carrying Orbital ATK’s eighth planned Cargo Resupply Mission to the International Space Station, an Antares rocket blasts off from the launch pad at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia Sunday, Nov. 12, 2017. The launch, originally scheduled to blast off Saturday, was delayed by 24 hours after an airplane strayed into the launch area. (Dylan Slagle/Baltimore Sun Media Group)
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- An Antares rocket carrying Orbital ATK’s eighth cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station blasts off from the launch pad at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia Sunday. The Cygnus spacecraft is named for Gene Cernan, the NASA astronaut who is the last person to have walked on the moon. It will deliver about 7,400 pounds of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory and its crew. (Dylan Slagle/Baltimore Sun Media Group)
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- An Antares rocket carrying Orbital ATK’s eighth cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station blasts off from the launch pad at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia Sunday. The Cygnus spacecraft is named for Gene Cernan, the NASA astronaut who is the last person to have walked on the moon. It will deliver about 7,400 pounds of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory and its crew. (Dylan Slagle/Baltimore Sun Media Group)
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- An Antares rocket carrying Orbital ATK’s eighth cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station blasts off from the launch pad at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia Sunday. The Cygnus spacecraft is named for Gene Cernan, the NASA astronaut who is the last person to have walked on the moon. It will deliver about 7,400 pounds of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory and its crew. (Dylan Slagle/Baltimore Sun Media Group)
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- An Antares rocket carrying Orbital ATK’s eighth cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station blasts off from the launch pad at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia Sunday. The Cygnus spacecraft is named for Gene Cernan, the NASA astronaut who is the last person to have walked on the moon. It will deliver about 7,400 pounds of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory and its crew. (Dylan Slagle/Baltimore Sun Media Group)
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- An Antares rocket carrying Orbital ATK’s eighth cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station blasts off from the launch pad at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia Sunday. The Cygnus spacecraft is named for Gene Cernan, the NASA astronaut who is the last person to have walked on the moon. It will deliver about 7,400 pounds of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory and its crew. (Dylan Slagle/Baltimore Sun Media Group)
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- An Antares rocket carrying Orbital ATK’s eighth cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station blasts off from the launch pad at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia Sunday. The Cygnus spacecraft is named for Gene Cernan, the NASA astronaut who is the last person to have walked on the moon. It will deliver about 7,400 pounds of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory and its crew. (Dylan Slagle/Baltimore Sun Media Group)
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- News photographers check on their remote camera setups of the North side of the launch pad Saturday afternoon, following a scrubbed launch attempt earlier that morning. (Dylan Slagle/Baltimore Sun Media Group)
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- The sun sets over the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Friday evening as an Antares rocket carrying Orbital ATK’s eighth planned Cargo Resupply Mission to the International Space Station waits on the launch pad at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The Cygnus spacecraft, named S.S. Gene Cernan after former NASA astronaut Eugene “Gene” Cernan, who is the last person to have walked on the moon, will be carried into space on the Antares rocket scheduled to launch during a five minute window starting at 7:37 a.m. Saturday. The mission will deliver about 7,400 pounds of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory and its crew. (Dylan Slagle/Baltimore Sun Media Group)
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- A sequence of images captured by a sound triggered Nikon N90s film camera during the launch of the Antares rocket Sunday morning. (Dylan Slagle/Baltimore Sun Media Group)
Carrying about 7,400 pounds of cargo and supplies to the International Space Station, Orbital ATK’s eighth contracted cargo resupply mission blasted off Sunday, after a 24-hour delay, from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The Cygnus spacecraft, named S.S. Gene Cernan for the former NASA astronaut who is the last person to have walked on the moon, was carried into space on an upgraded Antares rocket. It was the second Orbital ATK flight from Wallops since a catastrophic explosion damaged the facility in October 2014.
Depending on weather conditions, rocket launches from Wallops Island, which is about 175 miles from Baltimore, are visible up and down the East Coast, especially at night.
Because of the inherent danger and the violent release of energy necessary to send a rocket into orbit, the nearest safe vantage point to watch or photograph a rocket launch is couple of miles away. In order to capture dramatic, up close photos and videos of the launch, photographers place remote cameras near the launch pad a day or more before the flight. These remote cameras are usually sound-activated by the deafening roar of the vehicle’s engines coming to life, or programmed to fire at a predetermined time to capture the launch. Because they are set up days in advance, the remote cameras must be protected from the elements, carefully secured to the ground, and often employ homemade solutions like timed trap doors and electric heaters to keep their lenses clear and dew-free.
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