Robert Kooima

One of the applications of my dissertation on planetary-scale data processing is an in-development interactive visualization of the data to be collected by NASA’s latest moon probe, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. I’m working with the Adler Planetarium, public outreach center for LROC, the LRO Camera. As a part of this project, I was invited to attend the launch of LRO/LCROSS at Kennedy Space Center.

It was a great experience. The Atlas V launched on June 18th, the first available launch day. A bank of low clouds had rolled in just prior to the launch, so the rocket itself was only visible for about a minute before lighting up the overcast and disappearing from view. It was an impressive spectacle for that minute, burning with an intense orange light. The sound was a massive rumble with a sharp crackle, continuing well after the rocket had gone out of sight.

Shuttle Endeavour had been having trouble on the pad due to a hydrogen leak. They made one last attempt to fuel late in the evening of the 16th. Had they succeeded, we could have watched an early morning launch from our hotel balcony along the beach to the south. However, the leak persisted and the launch of Endeavour was scrubbed. Our bonus rocket launch was not to be.

While waiting for the launch of the Atlas V carrying LRO/LCROSS, I took the opportunity to snap a few photos in and around the Saturn V Facility near the launch viewing stands. It’s all huge, so I decided to stitch some panoramas. These were created using Autopano Pro and touched up using Photoshop.

KSC as seen from the launch viewing stand [9969x719, 1.0MB]

The Saturn V [5290x1272, 1.3MB]

Another view of the Saturn V [4961x950, 1.0MB]

The business end of the Saturn V [2442x2273, 1.2MB]