Limited Edition: Orders open for one week, through 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, Jan. 24, 2025.

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FL—This image was created early in the morning on January 16, 2025 at 2:03:16 a.m. as Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket lifted off on its maiden flight. The rocket, with a Blue Ring pathfinder spacecraft inside its 7 meter diameter fairing, successfully reached orbit on the first launch—unbelievable congratulations to everyone at Blue Origin who made it a success, current and former. What an achievement! New Glenn has a bright future ahead.

With help from and thanks to the Space Launch Delta 45 and Blue Origin, I was able to place this remote, sound-activated camera about 3/4 of a mile from New Glenn on Saturday, January 11. Being a few thousand feet away presented a challenge. To see the BE-4 engine nozzles clearly, I would need to pitch the camera up, away from the horizon and into the sky fairly significantly. The challenge being: there’s not a rocket nicely placed tens of degrees up in the sky days before the launch. I did my best to remain centered on the tip of the composite fairing and pitched the camera vertically about 15 degrees. “Was that centered? It felt off—I better check it again,” I told myself, about 20 times. After enough tries, I was confident I had aimed it at just the right rectangle of sky to have New Glenn lift off and soar through the frame seconds later.

After a few launch delays due to a frozen purge line on New Glenn, inclement rocket-landing weather in the ocean, and a few visits to the camera to install fresh batteries and clean off the lens from any overnight dew/moisture, I returned to the camera to find this. It turned out just how I visualized it in my head over the months leading up to the huge moment.

Thank you to everyone that allows me the privilege to creatively and professionally (full-time) cover spaceflight and gives me the creative freedom to continue imagining what to capture, write, and communicate next.

Print: Autographed, numbered. Created using the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 printer on Ultra Premium, Polar Luster Metallic photo paper, these 17″ x 22″ (43cm x 56 cm) limited-edition prints will arrive without any bezel or white border surrounding them. Once opened, the print will be tube-shipped and rolled inside a 17-1/4″ x 22-1/4″ 3-sided clear, plastic sleeve for archival keeping and protection before being framed.

Image: Captured via sound-activation with my Canon EOS R5 camera + RF 800mm f/11 IS STM lens.

Download: Your purchase includes the full-resolution digital download of this image along with personal-use rights to make it your cell phone wallpaper, desktop background image, or make other prints of your own for personal, non-business and non-commercial use. I use the honor system in providing these full-res files and ask that you please not distribute the file externally, beyond necessity for personal printing.

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