Axiom 4 Manned Mission Launch
Four more souls sent to space!
Last night, umm, I mean early this morning, Space-X successfully launched the Axiom 4 mission in a Dragon capsule named Grace on a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station (ISS)with four astronauts aboard.
This is a brand new Dragon capsule those astronauts are riding aboard, which is also the very last to be made in the Dragon capsule fleet. Aboard were Commander Peggy Whitson of the United States, Pilot Shubhanshu Shukla of India, Mission Specialist Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland, and Mission Specialist Tibor Kapu of Hungary. A notable launch because this is the first government-sponsored human spaceflight in over 40 years for India, Poland and Hungary.
While onboard ISS for brief their two week stay, they will be conducting a multitude of biological and tech experiments that include around 60 scientific studies and activities representing 31 countries, including the U.S., India, Poland, Hungary, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Nigeria, UAE, and nations across Europe.
I rolled out of bed at midnight to gather my camera gear and motor on over to Titusville to catch this much anticipated launch. It had been delayed several times due to a handful of unlucky reasons. Tonight was the night, I could feel it, mostly because I made the long drive from Kissimmee and sacrificed a night of good sleep for it.
However, as all launch enthusiasts fear, a last-minute problem arose, threatening the launch yet again. This time, it was the failure of a critical file upload necessary for the crew safety in case of emergency. They had a very strict window in which to resolve this issue and cut it to the wire! Just before the window closed, threatening a scrub, they called out resolution with a successful file upload. You guessed it, I did my happy dance again, careful not to knock my tripods into the water in front of me. Another 40 minutes left in the countdown while they then proceeded to fuel the Falcon 9.
It was a perfect night, crystal clear with no wind, great for reflections. And the clarity left a jaw-dropping view of the boostback burn nebula effect from when the first stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket reverses its trajectory to return to Earth.
I shot from a new location, not quite sure how well I framed up the arc I was hoping to capture. As it turned out, I should have rotated the camera to portrait orientation to catch the full reflection. This was shot at 8mm on my Fuji cropped sensor camera, as wide of a lens as I currently have, and I still almost missed it. Still, a successful launch for all!
