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Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FL—This image was created early in the morning on January 16, 2025 at 2:03:24 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 a few hundred feet shy a mile from New Glenn on Saturday, January 11.

Behind the scenes:
On the grounds of the Cape Canaveral lighthouse, near the northwest corner of Hangar C, there is a basketball hoop. It’s fun to think for a minute who might shot a few hoops from here over the past several decades.

First lit in 1868, it is the only fully operational lighthouse owned by the United States Space Force. Tonight, it would be silhouetted by the light of the next entrant in a new age of rocketry: Blue Origin’s New Glenn.

I’ve been to this lighthouse many times before, but this time, upon arriving I noticed a bunch of us media all bunching up together in a similar area for a photo, as we usually are permitted. I thought to myself, “how can I do something different here?” “how can I make a picture that really stands out?

I noticed the basketball hoop.

The second picture in the gallery above is a pre-launch capture from my camera’s point-of-view once I had set it up. I could easily see the nose of New Glenn’s payload fairing, I knew generally where Blue hoped it’d fly. So, I moved around playing with the perspective size of the basketball hoop, the lighthouse, and the rocket to find a nice composition where each had its own portion of the image. I also made sure each of the compositional elements flowed together:

• Once airborne, the rocket would be the tallest item in the background
• closer would be the lighthouse and next in the list of height
• closer still would be the parking lot and surface of the ground with just a hint of light reflected
• and finally, closest to the camera would be the basketball hoop—exposed brightly enough to visualize the scene and silhouettes, but not so much so you couldn’t discern the hoop’s netting.

This turned out exactly how I visualized it in my head and it was a nice surprise to have something so unplanned happen in the moment. It was quite a fun creative challenge to make this happen with the timing, weather, and technical obstacles needing to be overcome.

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 + EF 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM II lens, at 105 millimeters.

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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