Grabbing the Bull by the Horns

This is the Minotaur-V rocket, a re-purposed Peacekeeper ICBM, sans nuclear MIRV warhead. Inside the 80+ foot rocket is LADEE, the Lunar Atmosphere Dust Environment Explorer, which is heading to the moon to examine the contents of the atmosphere (or, more correctly, exosphere) and run other tests.

The launch was slated for 11.27pm Friday night and NASA's flight facility was swarmed with approximately twenty thousand visitors. I was part of the media, a group of about 50 people who had special access to get close to the rocket and then for the launch.

The weather was absolutely perfect, not a cloud in the sky and the winds were nil. Launch went right on schedule.

This was shot with a 17-35mm len on my Nikon d2x.