I experienced Artemis II up close

Posted by Least-Size-8807@reddit | aviation | View on Reddit | 101 comments

Having never experienced a rocket launch, I had no idea what to expect. I had tickets only 3 miles away from the pad. When the countdown began, I could see through my 700mm lens the Artemis II quietly rise above the tree-line roughly 2 seconds ahead of schedule. A few seconds later, an immense rumble reached our position and the incredible sound of the boosters exploding and popping spooked all the birds in the vicinity. Huge thick clouds formed at the base and beneath Artemis as it accelerated. The crowd began going through a rush of different emotions and vocal reactions.

With the rocket being out of sight within approximately 1 minute, it was exciting, incredible, stressful and an overwhelming task to capture this historic moment. Between the raw power, the insane sounds and the pure admiration behind such an engineering marvel I felt totally mesmerized. It truly was a “you had to be there” moment to describe this day. As the boosters separated, everyone cheered. New friendships formed through passion and curiosity and many bucket-lists were filled. Sharing my photo highlights which I’m happy with considering I didn’t prepare for how bright that flame would be.