08/30/2026
Turn your volume all the way up and listen to the roar as the NASA Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is carried to the heavens on top of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Look closely around :26 to see the boosters separate and begin to fall back.
I filmed this roughly 25 miles from NASA's Kennedy Space Center launch complex 39A and it took more than 90 seconds for the roar of the engines to hit me.
Unfortunately, this was not the video i had in mind when I headed out this morning. I had a long drive then a fast-paced hike to get to the spot I had in mind. The problem was I was now looking directly at the rising sun.
I watched the broadcast, listened to the countdown and was scanning to the left and right of the sun looking for the flames and couldn’t understand how it hadn’t hit the horizon almost immediately from my vantage point. Then finally I looked up a bit higher and realized it hat ascended directly in front of the sun and was already well down range by the time I started filming.
I still got some great wildlife action this morning, but headed home really disappointed that I had missed this opportunity so badly. It definitely makes me appreciate the people that do rocket launch photography full-time because you never get a second chance.
