Howdy IF crew! I thought that it would be cool if I introduced a new topic to the IF community that I don’t believe has ever been on this platform before. I live in Central Florida, so this is something that I have planned for future posts, too.
Now, time for the history-making announcement: photos of aircraft that go to space are now available to the IF community! This aircraft is called a rocket.
A rocket (from Italian: rocchetto, lit. ‘bobbin/spool’)[nb 1][1] is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed.[2] Rocket engines work entirely from propellant carried within the vehicle; therefore a rocket can fly in the vacuum of space. Rockets work more efficiently in a vacuum and incur a loss of thrust due to the opposing pressure of the atmosphere.
Multistage rockets are capable of attaining escape velocity from Earth and therefore can achieve unlimited maximum altitude. Compared with airbreathing engines, rockets are lightweight and powerful and capable of generating large accelerations. To control their flight, rockets rely on momentum, airfoils, auxiliary reaction engines, gimballed thrust, momentum wheels, deflection of the exhaust stream, propellant flow, spin, or gravity.
I know! This is very exciting news. However, I have a bit of disappointing news for you guys. I didn’t go out and buy a $10K Canon Camera, so these pictures aren’t the highest quality ever. However, considering I took them from over 10 miles from the rocket launch, and from my own phone, they are pretty good, all things considered.
BTW, I would like to give a special shoutout to @DeerCrusher, who said that it, and I quote, “Would be dope to see rocket photos”. Sorry that I got them out a bit late. Now, before I get into the pictures, how about some information on this particular launch?
Transporter 6 (Dedicated SSO Rideshare)
Falcon 9 Block 5
SpaceX
Mission
Transporter 6 (Dedicated SSO Rideshare)
Type: Dedicated Rideshare
Launch Cost: $52,000,000
Dedicated rideshare flight to a sun-synchronous orbit with dozens of small microsatellites and nanosatellites for commercial and government customers.
Trajectory
View the rocket launch trajectory, velocity, altitude, thrust, and much more at FlightClub.io
Mission patch for Transporter 6 (Dedicated SSO Rideshare)
Location
Space Launch Complex 40
Cape Canaveral, FL, USA
868 rockets have been launched from Cape Canaveral, FL, USA.
Space Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral, FL, USA
Rocket
Falcon 9 Block 5 – SpaceX
Family: Falcon
Length: 70 m
Diameter: 3.65 m
Launch Mass: 549 T
Low Earth Orbit Capacity: 22800 kg
The Falcon 9 Block 5 was manufactured by SpaceX with the first launch on 2018-05-11. Falcon 9 Block 5 has 138 successful launches and 0 failed launches with a total of 138 launches. Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of satellites and the Dragon spacecraft into orbit. The Block 5 variant is the fifth major interval aimed at improving upon the ability for rapid reusability.
Core Landing
B1060 will attempt to land back at the launch site after its fifteenth flight.
Landing Zone 1 – LZ-1
LZ-1 Pad located at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at the previous LC-13
Return to Launch Site – RTLS
A return to the launch site usually means that after stage separation the booster flips and does a burn back towards the launch site, landing near where it initially launched from.
Agency
SpaceX
Type: Commercial
Abbreviation: SpX
Administration: CEO: Elon Musk
Founded: 2002
Launchers: Falcon | Starship
Spacecraft: Dragon
Country: USA
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonization of Mars. SpaceX operates from many pads, on the East Coast of the US they operate from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and historic LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. They also operate from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, usually for polar launches. Another launch site is being developed at Boca Chica, Texas.
So, with all of that nonsensical information on the launch, let’s get into the pictures!
Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this topic. Please, seeing as this is the first one of many to come, I would sincerely appreciate it if you gave this post a like if you want to see more of this again sometime soon. There is already another launch scheduled soon that I intend to go capture more pictures of.
Thank you guys again for giving this a view, and I hope your 2023 is wonderful.
Side note: You can DM me for something specific that you would like me to try and photograph. I mean if there is anything that you could only see from the space coast of Florida. I am open to suggestions. Also, side note: please share this topic with anybody on this platform that you know of that would like to see this. I would like to see as many people as possible reading this.
