IGW // PHOTOGRAPHY

Spaceflight, in frame.

Photographs from IGW's own coverage — launches, vehicles and the pads they fly from.

Featured photographs

Starship and Super Heavy on the launch mount at Starbase at sunrise, reflected in standing water.

Starship at sunrise

A close view of the base of a three-core Falcon Heavy at the moment of liftoff, the engine clusters of all three cores burning into a wall of flame and exhaust beside the launch structure.

All three cores lit as Falcon Heavy comes off the pad

A rocket with an orange core stage and twin white solid rocket boosters climbing off the pad on a bright column of flame, with a white crew spacecraft on the nose and a billowing wall of exhaust cloud below. A yellow emergency egress basket hangs on the pad's slidewire cables to the left of the vehicle.

The Space Launch System climbs off the pad in early light

A launch arcs over the beach at night in a long exposure, the trail bending downrange.

A launch over the beach, long exposure

The contact sheet.

A child in a NASA cap reads a space magazine in a camp chair at a launch viewing site.

A child reads a space magazine

A family poses in front of the crowd at a launch viewing site.

A family at the launch viewing site

A United States flag against heavy cloud, two smaller flags below it.

A flag over a launch viewing site

A launch arcs over the beach at night in a long exposure, the trail bending downrange.

A launch over the beach, long exposure

A rocket climbs on a bright plume past the black-and-white Cape Canaveral Lighthouse.

A launch past the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse

A rocket lifts off between two towers on a violet-tinged plume, exhaust boiling below it.

A liftoff between two towers

A close view of the base of a three-core Falcon Heavy at the moment of liftoff, the engine clusters of all three cores burning into a wall of flame and exhaust beside the launch structure.

All three cores lit as Falcon Heavy comes off the pad

A NASA umbrella in the foreground of a crowded pier, cameras set up behind it.

A NASA umbrella on the crowded pier

A rocket lifts off at night, twin exhaust columns lighting the tower beside it.

A night liftoff

A faint luminous plume high in a dark sky.

A plume at altitude

A white rocket with a white payload fairing climbs between two tall lattice lightning towers, a violet exhaust plume beneath it and sunlit smoke banked low across the base of the frame.

A rocket climbs out between the pad's lightning towers

A tall stainless-steel rocket standing on its launch mount beside a steel tower fitted with catch arms, under a clear deep-blue sky. In the foreground a dark sign reads PRIVATE PROPERTY, NO TRESPASSING.

A rocket on the mount beside the catch tower, seen past a no-trespassing sign

A rocket climbs past its launch tower on a violet plume.

Ascent past the tower

A spectator holds an Artemis medallion up toward the camera at a launch viewing site.

A spectator at a launch viewing site

A crowd lines a waterfront under trees and flags, waiting for a launch.

A waterfront crowd waits beneath the trees

A stone monument with a stainless sculpture by the water, palms behind it.

A waterfront monument among palms

A stone monument with a stainless sculpture beside the water, palms behind it.

A waterfront monument reflected in the water

A stacked Starship and Super Heavy climbing on a bright column of flame well above its launch tower, with a wide sheet of dust and pale smoke rolling out across flat coastal ground and water in the foreground.

Away and climbing, dust rolling out across the flats

NASA umbrellas and cameras set up on a pier beside the water.

Cameras and NASA umbrellas beside the water

Christina Koch in a blue NASA flight suit, smiling in sunglasses.

Christina Koch in a blue flight suit

Christina Koch in the orange launch and entry suit, helmet ring open, smiling.

Christina Koch in an orange launch suit

A stacked Starship and Super Heavy rising just past the top of its lattice launch tower in daylight, engines burning behind a rolling bank of white exhaust against a deep blue sky.

Clearing the tower in full daylight

Close view of a rocket's engine section at liftoff: bell nozzles clustered under the core stage between two solid rocket boosters, all pouring brilliant orange flame past the launch structure into a dark sky.

Core engines and boosters at full power, right off the pad

A tight crop of a rocket's engine section in early ascent, with a long pink and violet exhaust plume streaming down the frame. A lattice lightning tower and taut guy wires stand against the pale twilight sky at right.

Engines lit, plume running long against the twilight sky