In Soyuz MS Rocket and Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan
Rhiannon Adam
This ghostly image of a Soyuz Ms Rocket At Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, shot at night before taking off for the international space station in December 2021, has a particularly poignant resonance for its photographer, Rhiannon Adam.
About a month earlier, she was told that she would be one of the eight crew members of the Dearmoon project. To be the first civil mission of the moon, it was to be launched in 2023 using a Rocket developed by SpaceXBut was then canceled.
Adam was part of a large crowd taken to see the Soyuz rocket that evening. While others started to leave, she dragged to make her shot before she was escorted by security. “Before shooting the shutter, I held my breath and closed my eyes, because I did not have cable release,” she said. “It was a kind of strange exterior green light, the flood fires mixing with the mist, and I knew it was a show that I might never see again.”
Adam captured two images before being inaugurated in waiting buses and had to cross his fingers so that his photo would come out. “Fortunately for me, it did. The image is a bit bittersweet now, for what it symbolizes for me, but when I can dissociate it from my own life, I always think it is a beautiful monument to human success, “she said.
She is one of the 30 finalists in the professional competition of 2025 Sony World Photography AwardsCup in the “creative” category for your series of photos on the cancellation of the mission. The general winner of the photographer of the year will be appointed on April 16.
