Remote I Liftoff

While we don’t get too many space shuttles around these parts, it was the Island’s environment that let me build and test the remote camera enclosures that led to this photograph, the launch of space shuttle Atlantis (STS-132), from beside launch pad 39A.

While launch is targeted for a specific date, things don’t always go according to plan. The cameras are set up around the pad the day before launch, but might have to sit out in the Florida swamps for upwards of a week while engineers work out all of the kinks in the system. That’s a week of expensive gear sitting out in all possible combinations of sun, cold, rain, humidity, storms, bugs, birds, you name it. Oh, and alligators. You’ve always got to keep an eye out for the gators, cute little guys.

Atlantis enjoyed a perfect launch day, and lifted off into blue skies on the very first attempt.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 17th, 2011 at 8:16 pm. It is filed under Fire, Human Activity, Lagoon Report XV, Lagoon Reports, Remotes, STS-132 Atlantis, Technical, Themes and tagged with Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L, Canon EOS 5D, T-Minus Prod. Audio Trigger. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.