At 11,253 feet, the Valles Caldera is literally up there. Looking to do a little astrophotography, the moon won the night and that made the Milky Way only faintly visible. It was beautiful. That’s the real sound, and those aren’t Cocker Spaniels hanging out in the New Mexico wilderness.
Flugtag challenges wacky engineers and fearless pilots to fulfill their dream of flying.
First they construct their flying machine. Then they take a leap of faith. Or, as is more often the case, plunge into the waters below.
A timelapse of sunset from last night here on the Space Coast:
On April 7, the day before the Total Solar Eclipse, we were in Austin and stopped by a nightly event that’s really a fun time: watching tens of thousands of bats coming out at dusk to start the night-shift of bug hunting. The event cost nothing, and we found a free parking space not far away and just sat on a rock on the Colorado River. If you’re ever in Austin, I highly recommend this.
I made a short video of a trip to Playalinda near Titusville in March 2024 to see SpaceX launch a Falcon 9 from pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center.
My news article from the day: Talk of Titusville: SpaceX Completes Doubleheader
I’m a lot better photographer and writer than filmmaker, but this is what it was like that day.
It’s funny how when you see something often enough, you never forget it — even decades since the last time you saw that thing. For me, one of those things is my grandfather giving the “OK” or “go ahead” point of his finger. He did it whenever we left his house when I was a little kid, and I saw him do it to others. He gave it to me and to my cousins when we rode bicycles.
I saw this old video, “Biography of a Missile” that was made for CBS television back in the early days of rocket science: the goal at the time were long range missiles and the race to get them working and reliable in service of America’s self-defense. It was an all-out effort with nearly as many failures as launches. As the title suggests, it was the story of one such missile, culminating in its launch and liftoff.
United Launch Alliance (ULA) launched an Atlas V from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Otober 6, 2023, shortly after 2PM Eastern Time. The rocket was carrying two Amazon subsidiary Kuiper Systems demonstration satellites into orbit. Shortly after 4pm, ULA CEO Tory Bruno announced that the launch was successful, marking ULA’s 158th consecutive successful mission.
According to Dr. Jonathon McDowell of Harvard University’s Center for Astrophysics, the satellites were placed in a roughly 310 by 310 miw (500 x 500 km) circular orbit. McDowell also said that the second stage of the Atlas rocket would be placed in solar orbit for disposal.
This video results from a team effort by the Florida Media Now group, including myself, Richard Gallagher, T.J. Waller, Mark Stone and others. It was edited by me using Final Cut Pro.
SpaceX launched another batch of Starlink satellites to orbit on a southeasterly trajectory late in the evening on September 15, 2023. This video was recorded at the Banana River Bridge on FL-528 (the Beachline) in Cape Canaveral.
Crew-7 crew members NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, commander; ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, pilot; and mission specialists JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 as it lifts off from Kennedy Space Center on August 26, 2023.
The launch was captured from several angles and this video was assembled using Florida Media Now’s Mark Stone and my elements, then edited together by me. It was a true team effort.
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