Loved my ‘Random Run In’ with NASA photographer Max Evans on the Port Canaveral Pier the day “Odysseus’ was supposed to go to the moon.
My significant other ‘Dave’ and I were in town there to visit his son Keith who moved from N.Y. to Fla.near Cape Canaveral. We were jazzed we’d accidentally be right on time to see the launch of the first craft to the moon in 50 years! As luck would have it the big launch set for the last night we’d be there, was delayed till the next day and we missed it. Total Bummer.
“Odysseus” ( tough name to pronounce) was launched the next night by a private company named “Intuitive Machines”. As we all now know, the spacecraft did make it to the moon and even though it landed on it’s side was still able to send information back to earth. The mission was in fact a SUCCESS!
Thankfully guys like Max Evans, who I ran into, are around to capture moments like this for the rest of us.
Max Evans, a NASA Space Flight photographer was on that fishing pier across from the launch pad that day.
He was observing hardware movement at Launch Complex 36 in anticipation of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket launch.
Max has been shooting for nasaspaceflight.com for almost 12 months and has spent 4 years telling the story of modern spaceflight. He feels fortunate to be a part of the space industry.
His job is to capture moments of space missions for those of us who cannot see them in person. He feels fulfilled being part of something larger than himself, contributing to space exploration efforts like SpaceX’s goal of making life interplanetary. You can follow Max on Instagram. Check out: Max evans @_mgde_
Given the chance Max said he’d ‘absolutely’ be willing to travel to space himself. Sadly I won’t be traveling with him because I’m claustrophobic)
Oh, I wanted to mention Max gave me a cool NASA Space Flight patch. I’ll let you know where I decide to put it. LOL
Of course, I invited him to join me on The Debbie Nigro Show to talk about his cool job as NASA’s Space photographer. I love ‘Random Run Ins’! They’re some of my most fun interviews. If you’d rather read than listen the audio transcript is below.
Tune in Live weekdays from anywhere to hear The Debbie Nigro Show on WGCH.com.
AUDIO TRANSCRIPT:
0:00:00
And now, back to the Debbie Nigro Show.
4
0:00:07
Okay, I’m back to Business Monday. We’re talking today about the business of space.
2
0:00:11
If you’ve been watching the news, you know a private company got us back on the moon for the first time in 50 years and this is a very big story. Okay, it’s the first craft to reach the south polar region of the moon and you know there’s like stuff there, drinking water, oxygen, even rocket fuel that maybe the future astronauts are going to be able to tap. I don’t know, it’s exciting, but the craft wound up on its side. There are photos of that, of course. They still can send information. And the day of the launch, you know, everybody was very excited because it was going to happen. And I happened to be that very day down by Cape Canaveral with my boyfriend Dave, and
2
0:01:06
we were visiting his son Keith and his girlfriend Kayla. And we went out the day of to what’s called the Port Canaveral Pier, because Keith likes to fish there, and you could get a really good view of where the launching pad was. And there was this guy who was standing there with the tripod, very official, and I’m like, my gosh, this is like officially a NASA photographer, and that’s exactly who it was. So welcome to the show, my random run-in today, photographer Max Evans, who I met on the Port Canaveral Pier the day, am I saying this right, Max, Odysseus was supposed to go to the moon?
1
0:01:40
I think that’s how you pronounce it, yeah. I haven’t actually gotten it down myself, but yeah, it sounds about right to me.
2
0:01:47
I thought for sure you were going to have it, Max. Hey, nice to have you on my show. Good sport of you to do this.
1
0:01:54
Yes, ma’am. Good morning. Thank you very much for having me.
6
0:01:57
Boy, you’re talented.
2
0:01:58
I was looking at all your photography, not only of this particular flight, but everything you’ve done for NASA, you are in the moment. That’s some serious photography.
1
0:02:10
I mean, I certainly try to be. I’m just grateful that nasaspacelight.com has given me the opportunity to shoot for them over the last almost 12 months now. I’ve dedicated the last about four years of my life to tell them the story of modern spaceflight as you will. I would say I’m lucky to be here, but I’ve also worked very hard to get where I’m at now.
2
0:02:34
Oh yes, congratulations to you. I wrote a little something up on Instagram and Facebook about how we were really excited. We thought we were going to be exactly on time by accident for the launch that night, which was going to be after midnight. We were going to be on the beach, we had the whole thing planned and I mean I even drink espresso to stay up for it Max, but then it got delayed, right? And the next day we missed it. So thanks to you, I get a chance to see some of the beautiful sights I would never have
2
0:03:01
seen and that’s really what your job is to capture moments for people that they can’t see themselves. That must feel happy.
1
0:03:08
Yeah, you know, it’s one of the few fields in the world that is really fulfilling in what you do because it’s as much as you love what you do you are ultimately part of a machine and a program that is ultimately so much larger than you ever could be as an individual. And certainly with where companies like SpaceX want to go and making life multi-planetary, it’s just you are one part of the machine helping everyone get where they want to go. So it’s just it’s a very humbling place to be for sure.
2
0:03:41
So this story that we’re talking about, first time in 50 years landing something on the moon, is a story about the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket which helped ferry intuitive machines of Desus Lander from the Kennedy Space Center to lunar orbit. Now when you were shooting from the Port Canaveral Pier that day. You told me you were doing something else. You were there making sure that you see if there was any movement. What was that about?
1
0:04:08
Yes. So when I ran into you over on the Jetty Park Pier over in Port Canaveral, I was joined by a good friend of mine and we just had some cameras aimed over at Launch Complex 36, which is where Blue Origin is going to launch their new Glenn rocket hopefully later this year. We were tipped off that there was going to be some kind of hardware movement over at the pad. And because Blue hasn’t necessarily flown anything from Florida yet at this point, let alone, we haven’t really seen any real hardware from them either over at the
1
0:04:41
launch complex beyond the factory. So really, any hardware movement over there, be it for New Glenn or anything going up over there, is super exciting. And of course, New Glenn itself is going to be a revolutionary vehicle for Blue Origin in the fact that it is their first, it is the company’s first rocket that is going to be orbital capable.
1
0:05:03
And it is also a very sizable rocket too, in the fact that it is, I think it’s just over 300 feet tall. So it’s about as tall as NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, which is designed to take our astronauts back to the moon, hopefully in a couple of years.
2
0:05:18
Yes, it’s crazy. I asked you on the pier, I said, would you go up to the moon? And you said yes.
1
0:05:25
No doubt, no doubt, whether it be low Earth orbit or the moon or maybe even on to Mars, depending on what the mission would be. I have no doubt that fate has plans for me up there at some point in the future.
2
0:05:37
I’m never going with you Max. Zero. I’ll take pictures of you leaving. That’s what I’ll take pictures of. How close can you get to a rocket at Cape Canaveral before it’s too close in terms of photography? Where do they put you? Where’s your parameter?
1
0:05:55
Well in the hours before some of the missions, SpaceX and other launch providers who may be launching that day, they are gracious enough to have us along as media. And we are fortunate enough at times to be putting actual cameras on the launch pads to fire up by themselves. But in terms of where we are on our person at T-Zero, we are usually anywhere from two and a half to around four miles away,
1
0:06:21
depending on where we are watching from and what launch pad they’re flying from. For the Intuitive Machines mission, we were about three and a half miles away.
2
0:06:31
I heard the sound is so loud that it shakes people’s houses down there.
5
0:06:37
That’s absolutely true.
2
0:06:38
The launch sound. I mean, from miles and miles away, their windows start shaking. Is that true?
4
0:06:44
100% true.
1
0:06:45
It only gets worse the closer you get. I mean, so over at the Kennedy Space Center press site, which is where we were for launch, I was on top of one of the press buildings over there, and even though Falcon is about three and a half miles away, once the sound hits us, I can actually feel the actual roof of the building vibrating. And it’s the same for any structure over there, too.
2
0:07:11
Oh my gosh. Did you want to be a space photographer? I mean, obviously as a kid, you must have liked taking pictures back when. So was this ever in your wheelhouse that you’d end up as a NASA space flight photographer?
4
0:07:23
You know, I’ve been a space freak really
1
0:07:25
ever since I was a kid. I mean, there was a documentary that came out in the early 90s called the Space Shuttle. And I used to watch that with my dad end on end, you know, just for my, in many of my youth years. But you know, as I got older, other, I had, I had other priorities. I was playing baseball, I wanted, I wanted to do other things. So spaceflight just kind of fell on into the back of my mind. But I happened to fall in the location around the Kennedy Space Center on a very fateful day in 2019. And it was
1
0:07:55
my first time going there. And it was also my first time being able to see and witness all of these buildings and locations that I had seen in textbooks and documentaries when I was a kid Being there in person and you are and the thing is when you’re when whenever you’re over there You are literally walking and looking at history. I mean, that’s where all the astronauts in the up in the in the Apollo program flew from For all these these space shuttle missions launched from and pretty much everything else in between from the US almost. So it was just, I would go as far to say that was the single most pivotal day of my life and that day is the reason why I’m doing what I’m doing now.
2
0:08:37
That’s awesome, you’re from Chicago, right?
1
0:08:40
Yes ma’am, I was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago but I got pretty tired of the winters up there so I guess I moved somewhere a bit warmer.
2
0:08:48
Yeah, that’s why we met, baby. I just couldn’t take another New York day for a minute. You know, I was in awe of being able to see Cape Canaveral, and I saw it from a lot of different vantage points, obviously on the pier, the Port Canaveral Pier, but also we went to Cape Canaveral National Seashore, which is gorgeous, and as we were driving, I just kept hopping out of the car, making Dave pull over, taking pictures from every angle.
1
0:09:13
It really is awe-inspiring. It really is. It sounds super cliché. I’ve lived full-time in Florida now for just over two years. The Starlink mission that launched yesterday was my 145th mission documented. Honestly, it really never gets old. No matter which complex you’re going to, no matter which site you’re driving to, no matter what you see, it really never gets old. And that’s why I feel so strongly about this modern era and spaceflight and how important it is to help document
1
0:09:51
and help use the imagery that we capture to help inspire the next generation. Because the world as we know it now is kind of shaky. And I think everyone needs a bit of hope and a bit of light in their tunnels. So that’s why I feel so strongly about what I do.
2
0:10:06
Yeah, I actually found a letter online from the White House. It was a statement from President Biden on the successful landing of the Adistis lunar craft. And he said on Thursday night, for the first time in over 50 years, an American spacecraft landed on the moon, a thrilling step forward in a new era of space exploration. And he was clear about the collaboration, it was a robotic lunar lander named, and again nobody can pronounce this, Odysseus launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on February 15th, sent images on
2
0:10:36
Thursday from the moon as it circled in low orbit before touching down near the South Pole. And what he said was, this mission marks a milestone. The first moon landing by an American company. It’s a public-private partnership between NASA and the American company Intuitive Machines. It was made possible by American ingenuity, innovation and curiosity and through NASA’s Artemis program, it’s the first of more public and private sector space missions to come, bringing together our international and commercial partners to return humans to the moon for the first time in decades.
2
0:11:07
America is leading the world back to the moon.” And that was like, you know, loud, right? Because, you know, I grew up with everybody talking. Nobody ever missed a space launch of any kind in my generation. It was like the biggest news, right, Bobby?
3
0:11:25
Absolutely.
2
0:11:26
I mean, you know, nowadays, something goes up and you’re like, oh, it went up? Like, really? We used to stop, drop, roll, watch, turn the television on and watch whatever was launching. It was humongous. So I see we’re going to get back to that, Max. I’m so honored to have met you and your incredible talent. Now, I will follow you on Instagram because I know you’ll be there for every photograph. What is your Instagram handle? I don’t like underscores, Max. It’s underscore what?
1
0:11:52
You know, honestly, I was hoping to avoid them, too, but, you know, that handle was already taken, but it’s just my four initials. So it’s M-G-D-E, both on Instagram and on Twitter, or X, or Twix, as I call it.
2
0:12:08
I know, I typed it in, but then I’m like, really, with the underscore? I understand now, I understand your underscore. I had one question. When we were, we had rented a Airbnb in Cocoa Beach, because I always, I watch too many I Dream of Genies, and I actually had to go pose by I Dream of Genie way. So we were right on the beach,
2
0:12:26
and we were planning to go out and watch the launch on the beach that night and everybody else was going to do it too. But when it got scrapped because of the delay, we did see and feel a private jet come by a zillion miles an hour, like right over our heads. And Dave’s son said, I think that’s Elon Musk. Something went wrong there. Who else would fly over like this in a private jet? Do you have any
1
0:12:51
idea who flew over my head? I would have no idea I wasn’t watching any ADS-B but it could have been somebody important I don’t know. It was somebody was moving
2
0:12:59
really fast in a private jet. Max Evans an honor to have you be my random run-in guest today on the Debbie Nygro show. I’m your new fan and I’ll be following you and I hope all my friends will too. Thank you so much for taking the time you’re a gentleman. Thank you very much for having me, Debbie. I appreciate it. Yeah, and a space patch. I got a space patch. Where am I supposed to put it? You gave me a space patch. On my jacket?
1
0:13:22
You can put it wherever you like, honestly. That’s the beauty of it. Put it wherever you want.
2
0:13:26
Okay, cool. I’ll be representing. Have a great day.
1
0:13:30
Awesome. Thank you very much. Awesome. Thank you very much.
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0:13:32
Take care now. More to come next on the Debbie Nigro Show.
Transcribed with Cockatoo
