About this time last year, Project Morpheus began a series of test flights over at Johnson Space Center. I just happened to be driving by one day and had my camera with me and got to take a make a few images of one of the first tethered test flights for the Morpheus Lander.

This morning I got up and was piddling around on facebook and twitter when I saw that there was going to be another tethered test flight today. So I got everything ready and headed over to NASA early this afternoon to watch and make some images with my new Nikon D800.

It was a beautiful day – big blue sky, nice temperatures, and Texas Wildflowers blooming everywhere. I wasn’t the only one who decided to check out the test flight in person.

While I was waiting for the test flight I had the opportunity to talk to one of the Morpheus Range Safety Officers. Steve told me a lot about how they control the flight and how they protect the lander and the crew. One of the things that I learned that there’s a giant shock absorber on the tether that has cardboard inside it to help cushion and protect the landing module if they need to abort the mission. Anyhoo, it was cool to get the opportunity to talk to one of the people involved with the mission. And here’s images I made.

Waiting for the test flight to begin – you can see in this shot that I’m pretty good distance away from the test site (I figure between an eighth to a quarter of a mile.

You can see the shock absorber on this shot. It’s between the pulley and the lander.

You couldn’t ask for a better day for a test flight (and there’s been enough rain, they didn’t have to worry about starting a fire like they did last summer).

Closer view of the Morpheus Lander in flight.

Check out the Project Morpheus website for more information.