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Behold, a clear launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base.SpaceX
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Typically a marine layer shrouds launches from here in fog or clouds.SpaceX
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But this was a really clear day along the coast north of Los Angeles.SpaceX
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So much so that the rocket could be seen clearly, from far away, providing dramatically different views than those of a launch from Florida.NASA
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This was the second flight of this Falcon 9 first stage, which first flew in January of this year.SpaceX
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That rocket successfully delivered the Zuma payload into space, but then something happened.SpaceX
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The Zuma payload did not successfully detach from the Falcon 9 rocket's upper stage, but it does not appear to have been SpaceX's fault.SpaceX
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There were no such problems on Tuesday.NASA
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The Falcon 9 rocket safely sent the upper stage into orbit.NASA
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Once there, it first dropped off two gravity-measuring satellites for NASA, and then 5 Iridium communications satellites.NASA
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Goodbye, fair rocket.NASA
Most of us associate Southern California with Hollywood, beaches, and sunny weather. However, with relatively cold waters offshore and typically higher pressures over the Pacific Ocean, there is essentially a competition between air rising from the surface and sinking air further up in the atmosphere. The rising air and sinking air meet in the lower atmosphere to form a marine layer—typically low-altitude stratus clouds.
This marine layer often manifests as a thick, rolling fog at Vandenberg Air Force Base, a two- to three-hour drive northwest along the Pacific coast from Los Angeles. This means rocket launches from Vandenberg often end in disappointment for expectant viewers. This occurred most recently with the Atlas V rocket launch of NASA's Mars InSight lander a few weeks ago, which people could hear but not see.
However, Tuesday's conditions at Vandenberg were relatively clear, which provided for some of the best viewing opportunities in recent memory for a rocket launch. As a result, some of the photos of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket launch are both striking and, in some ways, novel. As ever, we can't resist staring at photogenic rocket launches.
Listing image by SpaceX
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