Great shuttle photos are rocket science

Orlando Sentinel: Great shuttle photos are rocket science
by Mark Russell
On Friday, NASA announced that space shuttle Endeavour's last launch has been scheduled for May 16 at the earliest. It could be delayed again, but our coverage plan for the second-to-last shuttle launch will not need any tweaking.

It is a ritual in the newsroom, repeated several times a year with a few notable exceptions. We write human-interest stories about the astronauts and the Space Coast. And, of course, we solicit readers' and web users' shuttle memories and photographs of the launch.

Shuttle launches are defining news events for the region, shared by hundreds of thousands of people and talked about for years. Those lucky enough to see a launch in person talk about the photos they took and the rumble they felt on takeoff. And, we draft a disaster plan to be prepared in the unlikely event of a shuttle mishap.

The photographs of shuttle launches are among the most memorable images the Sentinel publishes in print and online. And getting those images is not easy.

Sentinel photographers covering launches are located at the closest viewing locations. The press site where the Sentinel has an office is 2.9 miles from the launch pad, close enough to hear not only the engine roar but feel the effects of the rocket's thrust. By contrast, the VIP viewing site is 3.5 miles from the pad.

One Sentinel photographer will be at a VIP site, capturing images of dignitaries viewing the launch. At the canceled Endeavour launch on April 29, President Obama and his family, along with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, were among hundreds of VIPs at Kennedy Space Center. Giffords is married to shuttle Commander Mark Kelly. At the scrubbed launch two Fridays ago, an estimated 750,000 people were in Titusville and the surrounding areas to see history unfold on the launch pad.

For an even better angle of the Endeavour launch, when it happens, longtime shuttle photographer Red Huber will be on top of the 526-foot-tall Vehicle Assembly Building.

Because the photographers can't get any closer than several miles from the launch pad, they are allowed to set out cameras positioned on tripods near the pad. These "remotes" are put into boxes to protect them from the elements in the mangrove swamps and left there overnight. Electronic sound triggers fire the cameras when the roar of the rockets happens the next day.

"What photographers try to do is capture the intersection of man, machine and nature," said Orlando Sentinel Visuals Editor Bonita Burton, who oversees the photography team. "The most memorable images are the ones that highlight the contrast between the quiet beauty and the explosive, electric moment of a launch."

The Sentinel's Red Huber has been setting up these remotes since the first launch exactly 30 years ago. He has only missed photographing three launches.

Typically, Huber puts six to seven cameras in different positions around the pad. The cameras are retrieved several hours after the shuttle has launched. The resulting photos are often the most spectacular images of the launch.

But the process is not without some challenges. For example, sometimes the remote cameras are triggered early or don't fire at all.

"I've been very fortunate. I've had a few failures, but I've learned from them," said Huber, a 39-year Sentinel veteran. "There's a lot of planning and preparation that go into this before this weeks before the launch.

"After more than 130 launches, it's tough to come up with something different, but I am usually able to come up with something fresh and memorable."

Sometime later this month — and then with the slated June 28 launch of Atlantis — we will see those fresh images and what Huber and the other photographers deliver for the last two launches.