Space 2015 Aviation Week Photo Contest Finalists

Delta IV Orion

Orbital Sciences ATK QM-1 motor protective hangar is retracted during a pre-firing test of ground support equipment.

Orbital ATK QM-1 motor firing as seen from a sound-activated, remote camera near the test stand.

Orbital ATK QM-1 test firing is documented by a second sound-activated, remote camera near the test stand.

The protective gantry is rolled back, revealing the Orion EFT-1 vehicle on Pad LC-37B at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station prior to launch.

The protective service tower is retracted form the Delta4 Heavy/Orion launch vehicle the night before its maiden launch on Pad 37B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

Sound-activated remote camera view of the launch of Exploration Flight Test-1 carrying the Orion spacecraft on a Delta 4 Heavy launch vehicle from Pad LC-37B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

View from the NASA Causeway of the Exploration Flight Test-1 Orion launch on a Delta 4 Heavy vehicle.

I woke up early, turned on the news, saw there was a rocket launch in 15 minutes, got out of bed, went out on the deck and arrived just in time to witness the successful launch of an Atlas V rocket from the Cape. That pin dot at the bottom is the rocket punching through Earth's atmosphere just before it vanished into outer space.

The MUOS 3 spacecraft carried by the Atlas V rocket was the 200th Atlas-Centaur launch. It was lighting up a January night sky at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

A ULA Atlas V carrying GPS IIF-8 rises from Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Dawn blazes and two security helicopters fly overhead as EFT-1 stands poised for launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Super Draco engines fire, pushing the Dragon 2 Pad Abort Test capsule away from Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral, Florida.