Because I recently learned how to use a panorama stitching tool (you probably noticed), I felt like taking several panoramas on launch day—especially when it became clear that we would actually launch. But because I am now really busy and (at least for now) sleep deprived, and because the interestingness of photographs might drop off, I will be rationing my launch-day photos until I can get through them all.<\/p>\n
To start with, I have the panoramas that I’ve roughly stitched together during brief breaks in the early-flight action. Not all are good, none are finished, and at least one wasn’t originally intended to be stitched together, but they’re good enough now to share.<\/p>\n
[image title=”Morning” size=”large” id=”4605″ align=”left” alt=”Another shot of the weather, for our “Marginal Marginal” day. Launch was still very uncertain (even doubtful) at this point” ]<\/p>\n
Like our last rollout, I decided to document the weather in the morning. This was a “Marginal Marginal” day. Launch was still very uncertain (even doubtful) when I took this picture.<\/p>\n
[image title=”Parachute” size=”large” id=”4606″ align=”left” alt=”The parachute, in a slightly mangled mashup” ]<\/p>\n
I took a bunch of pictures of the parachute. There are just barely enough to kind of stitch this mashup together<\/p>\n
[image title=”Pre-Inflation 360″ size=”large” id=”4607″ align=”left” alt=”360 degree view from my pre-inflation vantage point, at the side of the pad” ]<\/p>\n
Until after the first little bit of inflation, I was allowed to go off to the side of the pad to take pictures of the process. While waiting for inflation to start, I took a 360 degree panorama: pad on the left, highbay in middle, and mountains to the right<\/p>\n
[image title=”Flightline” size=”large” id=”4608″ align=”left” alt=”Full flightline panorama inflation. This picture is the primary reason I was placed beside the pad for as long as I was allowed to stay” ]<\/p>\n
This flightline panorama was the primary reason I was stationed out by the side of the pad. Shortly after taking this I had to leave for the highbay’s deck, where everyone was being herded by the safety officers<\/p>\n
[image title=”From the Deck” size=”large” id=”4609″ align=”left” alt=”Similar, more condensed view from the highbay’s deck. I had to go here once the side of the pad was “no longer safe”. Before launch we were all, disappointingly, forced to go inside” ]<\/p>\n
A little further into inflation, I took a very similar set of shots from the deck. Because the winds were towards the highbay, we were forced inside for he launch itself. Very disappointing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Because I recently learned how to use a panorama stitching tool (you probably noticed), I felt like taking several panoramas on launch day—especially when it became clear that we would actually launch. But because I am now really busy and (at least for now) sleep deprived, and because the interestingness of photographs might drop off, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4603"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4603"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4789,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4603\/revisions\/4789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}