United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration - Launch photography: Ben Cooper photographs rockets of NASA and more

(previous page) In a view you would never expect for a space launch, a Minotaur V rocket takes off on the LADEE mission to the moon in 2013 from Wallops Island, Virginia, as seen in a time exposure from more than 200 miles north on the roof of Rockefeller Center in New York City.

Copyright 2019 by Ben Cooper.

All rights reserved.

All photographs by the author unless otherwise noted.

Published by:

Amherst Media, Inc.

PO BOX 538

Buffalo, NY 14213

www.AmherstMedia.com

Publisher: Craig Alesse

Associate Publisher: Katie Kiss

Senior Editor/Production Manager: Michelle Perkins

Editors: Barbara A. Lynch-Johnt, Beth Alesse

Acquisitions Editor: Harvey Goldstein

Editorial Assistance from: Carey A. Miller, Roy Bakos, Jen Sexton-Riley, Rebecca Rudell

Business Manager: Sarah Loder

Marketing Associate: Tonya Flickinger

ISBN-13: 978-1-68203-416-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019932345

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopied, recorded or otherwise, without prior written consent from the publisher.

Notice of Disclaimer: The information contained in this book is based on the authors experience and opinions. The author and publisher will not be held liable for the use or misuse of the information in this book.

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CONTENTS

by Robert Pearlman

Photos showing what the cameras, positioned at the launch pad and under rockets, go through after snapping the clear photos they get at first. Cameras are frequently pummeled with exhaust, water, sand, and mud.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

B en Cooper is originally from Brooklyn, New York. He grew up a lover of both aviation and space, as well as photography, which he began to pursue around age eight. At fourteen, he traveled to Florida with his father to try to see a space shuttle launch for the first time. It took more than one try, but ever determined, when Ben finally saw one, he was hooked. From the very first attempt, Ben sought to get the perfect photo, going so far as to contact someone from NASA via the Internet for advice.

In 2003, looking to pursue a career in the space program, Ben attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, for a degree in aerospace engineering, which he obtained in 2008. During his time here, just an hour north of Cape Canaveral, he continued to pursue hispassion of photographing launches. He soon had the privilege to photograph for prominent space news publications such as SpaceflightNow, Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine, collectSPACE, and others. By the time he was ready to graduate, he had a broad portfolio in photography and offers to apply for a NASA photographer position. He had the opportunity now to photograph the remaining space shuttle launches and their mission preparations for NASA directly, which he did from 20082011, when the aging vehicles were retired. Much of this work was critical to the lives of the astronauts on board, as NASA implemented broad documentation requirements for photography both on the ground and in space during missions following the Columbia accident in 2003. During the same period, new space launch companies were beginning to establish themselves and conduct their first launches in an era some have dubbed New Space, and Ben was quickly asked to join in on documenting the first flights of this new era.

To learn more about Ben, see more of his work, and purchase prints, go to:

www.LaunchPhotography.com/

www.facebook.com/LaunchPhoto

www.twitter.com/LaunchPhoto

Acknowledgments

This book is dedicated to all my friends and followers who have helped and supported me the last 20 years, not the least of whom is my wife, Katie, whom I met setting up cameras at a shuttle launch in 2010; my parents, Betsy and Marty and sister, Rachel; and great friends, especially photographers William G. Hartenstein and James Brown and writers Justin Ray and Robert Pearlman for giving me the opportunities to get started, and without whose mentoring, I might not be where I am today.

FOREWORD

I t is a challenge to translate into words the tremendous explosive force released by a rocket launch. Journalists and authors, myself included, have tried to convey the sheer power of the liftoff to varying degrees of success, but no text quite compares to the sight of an impossibly bright, fiery flame thrusting a vehicle off Earth and into space.

And that is why what Ben Cooper does is so special.

Through his photography, we all get to experience the thrill of a launch, from vantage points where no human could ever safely stand and watch (let alone a camera survive; in the pursuit the photographs in this book, more than one camera and numerous lenses were destroyed).

Triggered by timers and the audio cues of the rockets roaring blast, Bens cameras have provided a front row seat to space historyto space shuttles taking astronauts to orbit, to new, reusable rockets blazing a path into space and to robotic planetary explorers leaving our world to probe the farthest reaches of our solar system.

And while there is a technological component to the images he captures, Ben is also an artist. His care in framing the rockets on their launch pads and finding ways to incorporate the often serene and fragile natural settings that surrounds these violent (if only for a few moments) locales, juxtaposes the height of human ingenuity with the core reason that we explore spaceto improve our lives here on Earth.

I take a certain pride that I was able to help give Ben his start. But Bens own launch was just the beginning. His work earned him a place among NASAs staff photographers and shooting for some of todays leading rocket companies to capture their official launch imagery.

So let the countdown begin! As you turn the pages of this book, appreciate the beauty, marvel at the power, and remember that behind every image is the artistry of launch photographer Ben Cooper.

Robert Pearlman, space historian, journalist, and editor of collectSPACE.com

THE LATE SHUTTLE ERA

(19992011)

Prelaunch Milestones

Every shuttle mission began not with a launch, but with the landing of the mission before it.

The space shuttle was the worlds first reusable space vehicle, flying 135 times between 1981 and its retirement in 2011. Five of them were built: Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and later Endeavour, which replaced Challenger after its tragic loss in 1986. (Columbia would also be lost in 2003, leaving NASA with three remaining through 2011.) With four operating at a time, each would be inspected or refurbished between missions and launched again, usually a few months later. So a mission began immediately after landing on the runway at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, or Edwards Air Force Base, California.