Giant Step for Marco’s Space Photographer

Planning is a strong point for Marco Island's space photographer Scott Schilke. It has to be. Schilke photographs rocket launches by NASA and Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Rocket launch photography requires a high level of attention to detail. And Schilke's among the best at capturing iconic images of the high tech rockets and astronauts. 

But there was one thing Schilke didn’t plan on. When his editor in Luxembourg died suddenly, and her websites were frozen, Schilke was left heartbroken, personally and professionally.

“Losing my editor,” Scott Schilke said, "I've been lost. It's been difficult. It's been heartbreaking. It's been sad not only on the personal side of losing my editor, but having to start all over again. This certainly has been a giant learning curve on having a backup plan, which I never had. I just always thought that life would continue, and photos would be sent to Luxembourg and they'd instantly get put on the website. And then in the blink of an eye, it changed when Maggie lost her battle with cancer. So, I've been forced in a way, to start my own website. I'm doing that now. I'm starting from zero again.”

Starting from zero is a huge deal in the highly competitive field of space photography. With Maggie, Schilke had built a car racing website to a dizzying 150 million views. Schilke and Maggie took a space-only website from zero to four million views.

“Unfortunately,” Schilke said, "she tragically has passed in early July after losing her third battle with cancer. She went so quickly that those sites, even though they're large, are just frozen in time. Those images, the stories, and the people that are behind those launches--that built those rockets or built those satellites or built the science investigations—that are going to the International Space Station. They’ve spent years and years. Sometimes maybe all their life on this one mission or this one experiment. Those stories need to get out. And that's what NASA and SpaceX and the 45th Space Wing want to see. That's our job, to get that story out.”

Schilke was brought to Marco Island by the famous Deltona Corporation as a property manager when he was a young man. He spent his career in that capacity on the island.  Now 68, he’s among the few rocket launch photographers who don’t live on the Space Coast.  

He needs views on his new website spacenewsfl.com to ensure his future participation in the space program. He said Coastal Breeze News readers can help.

“They can help by sharing that weblink spacenewsfl.com to their friends, to their family,” Schilke said, “clicking on it and staying on it. Go through and look at the different rockets, the type of rockets, the different type of angles that we try to capture out on the launch pad and some of the unique things that happen as the rocket is leaving Earth and it's in the upper atmosphere. It’s truly incredible.”

Schilke said he’s proud to be able to document the launches and bring high quality images to spacenewsfl.com followers.

"I hope they will see things that they've never seen before, especially regarding the nebulae when the first stage and second stage are separating. It's it really is a phenomenal thing to see in person.  I hope more people will even go out to Cape Kennedy and watch some of these rocket launches, day launches and night launches. They're both tremendously exciting. And when you're around other people who are excited by space and about space launches, it really does become captivating. So, I hope they will stay on the website and look through it and then continue to come back because we're launching rockets almost every single week from Cape Kennedy. So, there will be a lot of new photos, articles and information coming almost every week. I’m trying to document as much as I can. This website is going to be very dynamic and constantly changing.”