I recently was invited to collaborate with NasaSpaceFlight.com on a few upcoming projects and my first effort was to provide live footage for their livestream of the CRS NG-19 cargo launch to the International Space Station.
What was fun about this particular project is that the rocket launched from Wallops Island, Virginia so I was able to capture stage separation and upper stage ignition from the beach here in Connecticut! Check out their coverage here, my shots begin around begin around the 36:30 mark:
The shot begins with the first stage reaching its main engine cut-off followed by stage separation. The tail end of the first stage was visible here and it looked amazing as the sun was setting.
I was then able to catch the second stage ignition complete with the fairing halves falling back to earth. See it here on the Snippets channel.
It was really fun to hear the excitement of the commentators and watch the reaction in the chat room. These “up the coast” shots are rare as most rockets launch from Florida and don’t offer these kinds of views from land.
Tune in tonight at around 11:15 p.m. eastern as I’ll be providing some color commentary on the launch of a communications satellite on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.