How Zach Grether Captured an Image of the SpaceX Falcon 9 Landing

Zach Grether:

At 1:21am on May 6, 2016, SpaceX continued its run of aerospace brilliance with a night launch of its Falcon 9 rocket, carrying its Japanese communication satellite payload to geostationary orbit. The most spectacular portion of this event was the first successful night landing of the Falcon 9’s first stage onboard their floating platform called “Of Course I Still Love You.” While this was not the first successful landing for SpaceX, it was the first one at sea at night and also one that they predicted to have a high probability of failure due to the dynamics involved with the much higher energy needed to send the satellite to a higher orbit than previous launches.

What does that have to do with me? Well, at the time, I was on Hunting Island in the southern portion of South Carolina doing what I love to do, shooting the Milky Way…. and I captured the moment!

I love a good story and this one is as good as they come – make sure to read it from beginning to end. And there’s a tutorial thrown in for those who want to learn a bit more about astrophotography.

Please check out Zach’s prints too — some wonderful images there.