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Taurus XL rocket launch
Last night I stayed up to look for Comet Lulin near Saturn and to see the launch of the Taurus XL rocket carrying NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO). A 30 second exposure to the south in an attempt to reveal the green comet yielded the shot to the right. At first I thought my camera was shaking, but upon further examination it appeared that a 30 second at 300 mm is enough to reveal streaks from the spinning of the earth on its axis! Wow, we are moving.
By 1:30 am PST I had abandoned the search for Lulin and turned my tripod to the north toward Vandenberg AFB. The Taurus XL was set to lift off at 1:50:30 PST. I had the laptop on the top of the car streaming NASA TV and the countdown. At T-plus 00:00:10 I saw a fireball rocket in the northwestern sky heading south. As I raced to get my camera off of bulb-exposure mode (in the excitement and darkness I failed to be prepared) what appeared to be the first stage of the rocket separated in a puff of smoke. Then, as it crossed the western sky southward, there was another puff, this one larger than the last. In the photo on the left there is a clear stream streak on the lower left of the frame which is the glowing rocket flame. To the top right side of the frame there is an eerie “cloud” which is the position in the sky at which I observed the second poof. The “cloud” remained for several minutes.
This morning I learned that the launch had failed and the satellite had crashed into the ocean near Antarctica after a rocket stage failed to separate properly. Which leaves me wondering if the mysterious “cloud” is the moment of failure.
