Derek Newsome
@derek
Spaceflight Photographer Fighting to keep the dream alive. derek.space derekspace.com He/Him
I’ve always been a bit unlucky when flying out if Florida to never get a good view of Kennedy Space Center… until today that is
Take another look at last nights launch of LA-08 and the final Atlas V 551! This was my first time successfully using my 360 camera for a launch remote, so still a few adjustments to make but overall really happy with it!
Atlas V is an incredible rocket, and one I will miss dearly. Last night the final Atlas V 551 put on a show that can only be described as breathtaking. I have had one shot in mind for this variant for years, and not only did I finally get it on my last chance, it might be my best work yet.
To say this is going to be an incredible museum is an understatement. I am blown away by all of the incredible work done by the team behind the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center to give Endeavour a home worthy of her.
Interesting launch out of Japan coming up this evening! The debut flight of the H3-30 rocket, the first fully liquid fueled orbital rocket Japan has ever flown! It features a modified H3 core with 3 LE-9 engines instead of 2, allowing it to fly without any addition thrust from SRB-3. 📸JAXA/MHI
This record, like its prior, is expected to be relatively short lived, with ULA gearing up for the LV-01 launch for Amazon later this summer. That flight is anticipated to carry at least 40 satellites, weighing in at 23,200kg.
Prior to this flight the largest commercial payloads flown were prior Ariane 6 Amazon flights at ~18,900kg, and a few Falcon 9 Starlink missions at 17,500kg. 📸 Arianespace
Spacecraft are cool. Spacecraft that are going to land on the Moon are cooler. Definitely one of the more fun photoshoots of my career so far!
As rough as this conference was to watch for the actual planning bits of it... It was really freaking cool to see a photo I took in a NASA press conference today.
Back to work at LC-36 this week and let me tell you it is a sight to see! For the first time two New Glenn rockets are in flow simultaneously, "Never Tell Me The Odds" is undergoing refurbishment for its third mission, with "No, It's Necessary" being prepared for its maiden flight!
Scott here fails to mention one major part of this drop. There are some photos from Apollo landings that show amazing finds like dust on the camera lens, light refraction, or minor imperfections in the film! Clearly a major news item
The third SLS rocket was delivered to Kennedy Space Center just a few weeks after the Artemis II mission launched. The stage has been mated to its engine section for final outfitting ahead of stacking later this year for the Artemis III mission. 📸 NASA/Frank Michaux
No its still very likely to be light reflecting off of solar panels. It just in general looks a lot bigger than it is. It's similar to signal mirroring just on a MUCH larger scale. Solar panels on satellites like Starlink are still quite large, so when they angle just right its a big flash.
Whilst browsing my phone on a bus ride back from FRC Worlds, I have stumbled onto an old abomination I made. Behold, the Meatcube
Blue posted an update on Endurance's progress. Still work left to do but she's getting close!
And wow... to say this was one of the most special things I have ever had the pleasure of doing would be an understatement. My part in this is small, but the way I was welcomed by those who build and fly this machine was unbelievable.
With NG-3 coming to a close for my work, I'm left reflecting on how this ultimately went for me. This was the first time I was one of the primary photographers for a spaceflight mission. Throughout every step of integration I was there documenting and capturing moments of it.
After much debate from certain people over whether or not the people working on Artemis II knew what they were doing when they said they understood why the heat shield on Artemis I wore unevenly, I think it's safe to say that the scientists and engineers got this one right.
I wasn’t joking when I said that. I literally got called in to take a photo of a lunar lander in its shipping container.
And if you cared about outcomes, you'd take a look at the programs that were actually delivering and find how to leverage them, rather than just decimate their long term upgrades that would make them better.
If you werent there to favor companies then you wouldn't be the one doing everything you can to stop any part of the program that isn't privately owned or operated.
Mobile Launcher 2 was moving into Functional testing, and was not only structurally complete but approximately 90% complete for internal outfitting. And for EUS every major structure for the STA was completed and ready to be assembled together with flight hardware already in welding.
In his third paragraph he talks about how waiting until 2028 to fly for a lunar landing is not acceptable, however he then says that this is a trade against funding programs over budget and behind schedule when this is adding another flight to support HLS, which is overbudget and behind schedule.
However in his second paragraph he claims that NASA would not have kept the Artemis II Heat Shield had they known the mission would not launch until April 2026. Notably NASA targeted the mission to April 2026 publicly during that very press conference: www.nasa.gov/news-release...
The first paragraph is pretty much nothing though it does highlight how Isaacman directly aims to reduce the usefulness of SLS outside of Orion launches, something which a few science missions had been eyeing as a possibility to reduce transit times to certain destinations.