Chris O’Meara, a Tampa-based staff photographer who has covered major events for decades, said his “extraordinary” Artemis II launch image relied on a camera setup placed away from the action and timed to what the rocket sounded like as it began to rise. He said the approach helped produce a moment he described as visually defined by both the vehicle’s lift-off timing and the local wildlife’s reaction.
In describing the hardware, O’Meara said the team used a Sony Alpha 9 II camera with a 24-70mm F 2.8 lens. He said the rig included a device called a MIOPS that connects to the camera via USB-C, and he said one of its settings was used to trigger the camera using sound from the rocket’s engines.
O’Meara said Orlando staff photographer John Raoux and he worked over multiple days to build, test and position the cameras at several sites around the launch pad. He said the plan also included additional cameras inside the launch pad perimeter fence, which he said were connected to an ethernet port to feed images back to the team’s “Expedite” program so they could retrieve images quickly.
He said a New York photo editor, Sydney Schaefer, downloaded those images, allowing him and other staff to focus on handheld cameras at the event. O’Meara said he believed the photo works because of its historical value and because the United States had not sent astronauts to the moon since 1972, calling the Artemis II launch a test of a new NASA rocket.
O’Meara said he expected the image, along with other photographs from the day, to be used repeatedly through Artemis III, which he said is scheduled to launch in 2027. He said he also sees the launch as part of a sequence in which Artemis IV would carry astronauts and land on the moon.
In addition to the engineering, O’Meara said the frame captured the natural setting of the launch complex, which he described as having wildlife in the area. He said the nesting birds were “disturbed” and took flight when the rocket lifted off, and he said the time of day mattered because the setting sun produced silhouettes of both the rocket and the exhaust smoke.
O’Meara said the launch window ran for two hours, starting before sunset and extending into what he described as night-launch conditions. He said the team had to ensure the camera settings could handle both parts of that window.