Erik Kuna 🚀

🚀 📷 Photojournalist and Professional Spaceflight Photographer - @kelbyone instructor - Aerospace / Astro / Aviation Photographer, Trainer and Author

[Stoke Space @stoke_space]

Sound🔊on: epic fly-by footage of the ongoing Zenith engine testing and Stage 1 structural qualifications happening at our test site in Moses Lake. 🤘🚀

[Space Launch Delta 45 @SLDelta45]

UPDATE: Debris from the 28 May 2026 anomaly could wash ashore along publicly accessible areas over the coming days or weeks, report debris to 911. Launch vehicle debris is potentially hazardous, direct contact poses a risk to personal health and welfare.
https://t.co/LAvUsRdK4H

[Erik Kuna 🚀 @erikkuna]

😞😞😞 https://t.co/3H1QYHiDEy

[Erik Kuna 🚀 @erikkuna]

A.k.a Space is hard!

[Erik Kuna 🚀 @erikkuna]

Tonight was a reminder that 🚀 “there are a thousand ways for a rocket launch to go wrong and only one way for it to go right.” 🚀

[Blue Origin @blueorigin]

We experienced an anomaly during today's hotfire test. All personnel have been accounted for. We will provide updates as we learn more.

[Erik Kuna 🚀 @erikkuna]

😔

[NSF - NASASpaceflight.com @NASASpaceflight]

Blue Origin's New Glenn just blew up at LC-36 while attempting to Static Fire ahead of NG-4.

https://t.co/tANS0dWyIH

[Stoke Space @stoke_space]

Getting frosty in Moses Lake. 🥶

A thin layer of frost forms around our Stage 1 structure as it fills with cryogenic liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen.

These tests let us demonstrate structural and fluid design margins, an important aspect of the proto-qualification process. 🍦💡🚀

[Erik Kuna 🚀 @erikkuna]

Sometimes photography is about preserving exactly what happened. And sometimes it’s about creating something that shows what it felt like.

When I’m working as a photojournalist, the line is very clear. The image has to stay true to the moment. I’ll make the same kinds of basic adjustments we’ve always made in photography: exposure, contrast, color, brightness, maybe a little cleanup in tone. But I’m not removing elements, adding elements, compositing skies, or turning the scene into something it wasn’t. The job is storytelling, and the photograph has to remain anchored to the truth of that moment.

But photography as art is a different space.

This piece came from images I captured with a remote camera during the Artemis II mission, in that quiet twilight window before liftoff. The rocket was still on the pad, the horizon was starting to glow, and there was this beautiful stillness before all the sound, fire, and chaos that would come later.

The final image you see here is not photojournalism. This exact moment did not exist in a single frame. I combined elements from that twilight sequence, accentuated the glow on the horizon, and brought in star texture I captured earlier to create something that felt closer to the memory and emotion of being there.

That’s the teaching point for me: sometimes we use photography to tell the story exactly as it happened, and sometimes we use photography to make art from what we experienced.

I love both sides of it. Photojournalism keeps me honest. Photography lets me create.

[Erik Kuna 🚀 @erikkuna]

@Mylord3000 @SRBednarek Prints at https://t.co/4Win9k27bX or poster at https://t.co/MQaJPD11Az

[Joe.B @JoeB_Photos]

Chasing rockets and dreams at the same time.

[Erik Kuna 🚀 @erikkuna]

@SPCX100T @SRBednarek Nope, good guess, that one looked like this:

[Erik Kuna 🚀 @erikkuna]

I know... I know... ✋✋✋ Pick me, pick me! It's an oldie but a goodie... Way back in the early Falcon Heavy days, the first FH night launch to be exact, and those who know me know night launches are my jam, right @SuperclusterHQ 🚀🚀 Still hard to believe it was taken with a (now) 15-year-old @CanonUSA 1DX!

[SpaceX @SpaceX]

Watch Starship's twelfth flight test https://t.co/caRB1thMlg

[Erik Kuna 🚀 @erikkuna]

@stoke_space 🚀❤️

[Erik Kuna 🚀 @erikkuna]

I love working with Stoke on their visuals, so glad this company has always valued capturing high quality real world examples of their tests, instead of cheap computer renders or crappy engineering camera. Plus, they let the real hardware do the talking! Can’t wait to keep telling the story to and through launch!!! And back to launch again, and again. 🚀❤️

[Stoke Space @stoke_space]

The coolest "silo" in Eastern WA... is a Stage 1 rocket structure.🤘

Enjoy this footage of all the testing happening in Moses Lake, from structural qualification to engine hot fires.

[Andy Lapsa @AndyLapsa]

Engines racking up time on both test cells. Vehicle turned on and about to start testing...things are happening!

[Stoke Space @stoke_space]

Testing is LIVE in Moses Lake, for both our Stage 1 structure and Zenith engines. Proud of the teams who are working relentlessly to drive us forward on the road to launch.🛣️🚀

[Erik Kuna 🚀 @erikkuna]

@AJamesMcCarthy Nice! But that’s not luck, that’s putting in the work to make a photo! Great job.

[Andrew McCarthy @AJamesMcCarthy]

I took 1.7 million photos over 6 days to catch this photo of a commercial jet in front of the sun.

The moment it happened, TWO floating prominences were visible, making this not just my best aircraft transit photo, but one of the luckiest of my career! Videos of the transit 👇