Falcon 9: ORBCOMM-2
December 21, 2015, at 8:29 p.m. — SpaceX's Falcon 9 B1019-1 launches ORBCOMM-2 to a low Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. This mission marked the first Falcon 9 launch since an in-flight failure during the CRS-7 mission in June 2015. Disclaimer: The below photo is a composite image that combines two photographs of the Falcon 9's launch and landing, which were taken with slight movement and accidental bumps to the tripod between images. The reflection of the launch streak, not captured due to a crooked and poorly-oriented frame, is a brightened pasting of the reflection of the landing streak from the sequential photo.
Having shot this mission only a few months into my photography career, and considering no one had ever photographed something like this before, I was woefully unprepared to capture this launch as I am able to do today. As such, I revisited these two photos years later to combine them in a way that more cleanly tells the story of the first Falcon 9 booster landing. This is a very atypical process for me and in the handful of times I've done something like this, I strive to do so with full transparency. B1019-1 landed at Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral, marking the first-ever recovery of a Falcon 9 booster.
Read MoreHaving shot this mission only a few months into my photography career, and considering no one had ever photographed something like this before, I was woefully unprepared to capture this launch as I am able to do today. As such, I revisited these two photos years later to combine them in a way that more cleanly tells the story of the first Falcon 9 booster landing. This is a very atypical process for me and in the handful of times I've done something like this, I strive to do so with full transparency. B1019-1 landed at Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral, marking the first-ever recovery of a Falcon 9 booster.
