rocket launch

Summer is nearly back on the Space Coast, with warm temperatures and a persistent threat of rain in the afternoon and evenings — typical weather here, and it will stay this way for several months. That being said, Atlas V was able to beat the weather last night and launched at the opening of its window, with liftoff at 7:01 PM ET after an apparently quiet countdown, save for some concerns about the energy potential of a nearby anvil cloud (Cumulonimbus incus) lingering near the launch pad before dissipating.

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Summer thunderstorms have yet to arrive on the Space Coast this year, but there were rumbles and roars a-plenty yesterday on the Eastern Range. First, in the wee hours, SpaceX launched CRS-32 from KSC, and its booster landed at Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Then, after sunset, the company completed another RTLS Falcon 9 launch, this time from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Liftoff was at 8:48 PM ET.

Eight minutes and seven seconds after liftoff, Booster B1090 completed its third flight successfully at Landing Zone 2 on the site of the former Launch Complex 13.

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It was a good day to have a good day here in Florida, and that’s exactly what NASA, SpaceX and Crew 10 had today at Kennedy Space Center.

Falcon 9 lifted off, carrying three astronauts and one cosmonaut toward orbit and the International Space Station just as the sun was starting to set in the west. Some seven and a half minutes later, SpaceX booster B1090 completed its duty for the day by landing at LZ-1 in Cape Canaveral, 8.8 miles south of LC-39A.

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Ghost Boat, Florida, Charles Boyer 2024

Far from being anachronistic and out of date, black and white photography is as it ever was: a timeless art form that continues to influence modern photography, retaining its importance in the modern era.

In the age of high-resolution digital color imagery at our fingertips, black and white photography remains a captivating and at-once surreal form of art. The absence of color forces both the photographer and the viewer to focus on composition, contrast, detail and the intricate interplay of light and shadow without the distractions of hue and color. Tone becomes replaces color, another way of saying ‘millions of shades of grey.’ Ironically, that’s just like life: millons of shades of grey.

And everything in between.

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SpaceX completed a doubleheader today; not that many people close to the launch site saw it.

At 6:13 PM, Falcon 9 lifted off out of a gloopy fog at Launch Complex 39A and lofted the Maxar 4 / WorldView 5 and WorldView 6 satellites into orbit on the second successful mission of the day for the company. The rising rocket was seen up the east coast as far as New York City, but here locally, fleeting glimpses was the order of the day.

After staging, Booster B1076 begins its descent maneuvers (top) while Falcon 9’s second stage continues its ascent (bottom)
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One of the Orbital Science Corporation's Antares 130's Russian-made AJ26 engines ruptures fifteen seconds into the flight of the failed Orb-3 mission. The result was a spectacular RUD.
One of the Orbital Science Corporation’s Antares 130’s Russian-made AJ26 engines ruptures fifteen seconds into the flight of the failed Orb-3 mission. The result was a spectacular RUD. Photo: NASA.

Note: this is a writing sample of my original text, first published on Florida Media Now on January 24, 2025.

In the world of aerospace engineering, even the smallest miscalculation can lead to catastrophic failure. And in the past few years, a phrase has emerged as a humorous way to describe those unfortunate events: “rapid unscheduled disassembly,” often shortened to RUD. This technical-sounding euphemism, often deployed in the aftermath of rocket explosions, has become a staple in modern spaceflight jargon, and is widely used when a rocket fails. But where did the phrase come from?

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