Press Photographers at Press Site 1, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

Maiden Launch, Atlas III

This is a rocket’s eye view of the regular crew who come out to shoot the launches at the Cape. A favorite press site, we are allowed closer to the rocket than at any other pad, only a mile and a quarter away. This is Space Launch Complex (SLC or ‘slick’) 17, composed of two pads, A & B. The only ‘bird’ to still launch here is the Delta 2, a Boeing Co. rocket, now being replaced by the Delta 4. The Atlas III launches used to be covered from this site as well. Its pads, Complex 36 A & 36 B have been torn down, as the III has been retired in favor of the Atlas V. It looks like the Delta 2 only has a few more years of launches left before being retired itself. Only time and payload demands will tell. Left to right, the photog’s: Steve Young, Spaceflight Now; Tom Rogers, freelance/California; Carleton Bailie, Boeing Co. and freelance/Florida; Red Huber, the Orlando Sentinel; Mike Brown, Florida Today; unknown; and Bill Huncutt, NASA KSC employee.