#SpaceSaturdary: The first #SpaceX #Falcon9 #Heavy #rocket launched from LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. Crowds gathered across the #SpaceCoast to watch, including at Playalinda Beach.
In this #photograph, the rocket has risen above a hill, covered with eager viewers, while the three-cored rocket rising on three, firey exhaust plumes, and smoke billowing off to the left.
The views (and Fox, the #photographer) had waited hours in the hot Sun to see this. The #joy in the crowd is #palpable. One person has thrown their arms in the air, celebrating the rocket’s victory.
This #Falcon9Heavy carried an electric vehicle mounted on its upper stage as a test payload.
There is a sea grape bush in the foreground on the left.
#KennedySpaceCenter, #KSC, #PlayalindaBeach, #CapeCanaveralAirForceStation, #CCAFS, #SeaGrapeBush
https://heronfox.pixels.com/featured/first-falcon-9-heavy-rises-heron-and-fox.html

A United Launch Alliance #ULA #AtlasV #rocket lifts up over the #dune at the #beach of Cape Canaveral National Seashore CCNS, at Playalinda Beach, where it meats Kennedy Space Center #KSC property.
The newly-built Crew Access Tower at SLC-41 is visible in front of the flame column.
#UnitedLaunchAlliance, #Atlas, #AtlasRocket, #KennedySpaceCenter #PlayalindaBeach, #CapeCanaveralNationalSeashore, #rocketlaunch, #Florida, #Photograph, #Photo, Photography.
https://heronfox.pixels.com/featured/atlas-v-with-echostar-xix-1-heron-and-fox.html

The modern #AtlasV #rocket, designed by #LockheedMarting and operated by the United Launch Alliance or #ULA, has been called the #DialARocket for its ability to add capacity by adding solid rocket boosters like increasing steps on a #dial.
The “Dial” next goes up to 3 with the #Atlas V 431, with a 4 meter fairing, 3 #SRBs, and 1 engine on the #Centaur upper stage.
The private #comsat #EchostarXIX launched to #geostationary #orbit on a ULA Atlas V 431.
This #photograph shows it rising over the #dune at #PlayalindaBeach.
https://heronfox.pixels.com/featured/atlas-v-with-echostar-xix-2-heron-and-fox.html

A #photograph of a United Launch Alliance #ULA #AtlasV #rocket in its 431 configuration, with a 4 meter diameter fairing, 3 solid rocket boosters #SRBs, and a single #RL10 engine on its #Centaur upper stage climbs up from its #launch pad.
This #photo was taken from #PlayalindaBeach in the Cape Canaveral National Seashore #CCNS, where a mile’s hike on the beach can bring you directly against the decrepit wire fence that marks the boundary between the parts of #MerrittIsland open to the public, and #NASA’s Kennedy Space Center’s #KSC operational area.
The perspective in this image makes one of those fraying wires seem like an obstacle to the #rocket approaching from below.
https://heronfox.pixels.com/featured/atlas-v-with-echostar-xix-climbs-towards-wire-heron-and-fox.html