"sonicgabe" (gabeloewenberg)
03/23/2016 at 00:35 • Filed to: NASA, Cygnus
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"sonicgabe" (gabeloewenberg)
03/23/2016 at 00:35 • Filed to: NASA, Cygnus | 14
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Just up the street from my house is the perfect viewing point to watch whatever is blasted in to space from the Kennedy Space Center, albeit about 130 miles away. With NASA launching an Atlas V tonight carrying the Orbital ATK Cygnus atop it, I had to go watch. I’m a space nerd. I’m not the nerdiest space nerd, but I’m up there (I saw the very first Space Shuttle launch in person).
I’ve shot many a launch from here, but this might be the best picture I’ve gotten. First, it’s rare to get a completely clear sky to work with. It would have been a bit better without the full (or nearly full) moon high in the sky, but what can you do? I don’t control the moon. Not yet, anyway. Along with the beautiful red burn of the rocket, I also got two airplanes leaving light trails as a bonus.
Enjoy.
BoulderZ
> sonicgabe
03/23/2016 at 00:40 |
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Nice pic! That’s either the ISS resupply (Cygnus, I think?) or the fire-in-a-spacecraft experiment. Can’t remember which...
Just checked, it was the fire experiment... in a Cygnus! http://gizmodo.com/watch-nasas-sp…
Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap
> sonicgabe
03/23/2016 at 00:40 |
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That looks fantastic.
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BoulderZ
> BoulderZ
03/23/2016 at 00:41 |
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Even better, it does the resupply, launches 5 CubeSats, and then they do the “Set it on fire” experiment. 3, 3, 3 missions in one!
TheHondaBro
> sonicgabe
03/23/2016 at 00:45 |
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Oh man, that reminds me of a freaky dream I had one night. My house wasn’t too far from the NASA launch site/landing strip. One evening I see the Space Shuttle coming in for a landing, then all of a sudden in the sky everyone sees what look like a formation of bright projectiles detonanting in the air, similar to the Incineration Cannon from Halo.
The explosions rendered a certain radius from them completely uninhabitable, as the intense heat vaporized anyone within that vicinity. The entire dream I was running away from the advancing detonations. By the end of the dream I was holed up in the crawl space of a furniture store with some of my friends, but the area was getting hotter and hotter, and we knew our time was limited.
I’m, like, so much fun.
Agrajag
> sonicgabe
03/23/2016 at 00:47 |
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Awesome!
Nick Has an Exocet
> BoulderZ
03/23/2016 at 00:52 |
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It’s a cool mission - glad it’s gone off without a hitch so far. Don’t forget the experiments and then some that are inside the pressurized portion of the cygnus module.
We watched the launch live from my company tonight since we hooked a ride on it (nanosatellite company). I’m happy that they are doing the fire experiment - used cargo modules have gone wasted for far too long!
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Nick Has an Exocet
> sonicgabe
03/23/2016 at 00:52 |
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Great photo!
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sonicgabe
> BoulderZ
03/23/2016 at 00:52 |
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It’s both. They are resupplying ISS, then after launching some CubeSats, NASA is gonna light it up to see what happens. Should be fun.
EDIT: which is what BoulderZ said, which I didn't see.
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BoulderZ
> sonicgabe
03/23/2016 at 00:57 |
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What a great mission, right? CubeSats are awesome. Wish we could use them for our work. We have to go airborne, which is unbelievably expensive.
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BoulderZ
> Nick Has an Exocet
03/23/2016 at 00:59 |
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Yes, so much potential there! Worked with a few ISS sensor test companies, and always wondered if we could put some small, lightweight sensors on a used cargo resupply for even a fairly short term orbital mission. It’d only be the mid latitudes, but there are some very interesting geoscience questions at those latitudes.
TheOnelectronic
> sonicgabe
03/25/2016 at 17:55 |
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That should be their slogan.
“NASA: Set it on fire, see what happens.”