--- title: NASA's New Camera Reveals Details within Rocket Booster description: The High Dynamic Range Stereo X camera reveals never before seen details of what happens inside a rocket plume. canonical: https://time.com/4448683/new-camera-reveals-previously-unseen-details-in-nasas-rocket-booster/ author: Marisa Gertz article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-11T21:45:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T23:55:50.987Z article:section: Science og:title: Peer Inside the Firey Plume of a NASA Rocket with this GIF og:description: A new high dynamic range camera reveals never before seen details og:url: https://time.com/4448683/new-camera-reveals-previously-unseen-details-in-nasas-rocket-booster/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68fab49507afe08a/6988a20d8e0601325f4671da/rocket-booster-test1.gif?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1216 og:image:height: 684 og:image:alt: rocket-booster-test og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Peer Inside the Firey Plume of a NASA Rocket with this GIF twitter:description: A new high dynamic range camera reveals never before seen details twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68fab49507afe08a/6988a20d8e0601325f4671da/rocket-booster-test1.gif?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # New Camera Reveals Previously Unseen Details In NASA's Rocket Booster > Sponsored content. 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It reaches 40,000 subscribers with a 34.2% open rate and a 2.1% click rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Marisa Gertz](https://time.com/author/marisa-gertz/) ## Marisa Gertz Aug 11, 2016 9:45 PM UTC  Orbital ATK’s QM-2 solid rocket booster test, as recorded by a traditional video camera (top) and by NASA’s High Dynamic Range Stereo X (HiDyRS-X) camera (bottom). Orbital ATK’s QM-2 solid rocket booster test, as recorded by a traditional video camera (top) and by NASA’s High Dynamic Range Stereo X (HiDyRS-X) camera (bottom). NASA; Gif by Marisa Gertz for TIME by [Marisa Gertz](https://time.com/author/marisa-gertz/) ## Marisa Gertz Aug 11, 2016 9:45 PM UTC Earlier this summer, NASA performed a full-scale test of it’s [Space Launch System](http://www.nasa.gov/feature/revolutionary-camera-recording-propulsion-data-completes-groundbreaking-test) booster. Thousands came out to the test facility in Promontory, Utah to watch the spectacular display from what will be the most powerful rocket in the world. At the same time, [NASA](http://time.com/4376888/europa-jupiter-space-nasa/) was testing another device, the High Dynamic Range Stereo X (HiDyRS-X) camera. As anyone who has tried to photograph a sunset knows, getting the [perfect exposure](http://time.com/3941905/fireworks-photos-smartphone/) with a traditional camera can be tricky. Expose for the bright sun, and the rest of your picture will be too dark; expose for the darkening sky, and you lose all detail in the highlights. NASA’s traditional camera footage of the [booster test](http://time.com/3741754/nasa-biggest-rocket-booster-test-fire-sls/) (on top), runs into that same problem. In order to keep the exhaust from the booster from getting too dark, the detail in the bright flame had to be sacrificed. The HiDyRS-X solves this problem by recording multiple, slow motion exposures at once and then combining them into a single video. This technique allowed the team to see details that had never been caught on film before, such as vortices shedding within the rocket plume and the ground support mirror bracket falling to the ground. Despite a few hiccups (the force of the blast from the booster shook the power cable free after several seconds), the test was considered a success and proof that the technology worked. “Failure during testing of the camera is the opportunity to get smarter,” said Howard Conyers, a structural dynamist at NASA’s Stennis Space Center. “Without failure, technology and innovation is not possible.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4448683/new-camera-reveals-previously-unseen-details-in-nasas-rocket-booster/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4448683/new-camera-reveals-previously-unseen-details-in-nasas-rocket-booster/"},"headline":"New Camera Reveals Previously Unseen Details In NASA's Rocket Booster","datePublished":"2016-08-11T21:45:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:55:50.987Z","description":"Peer inside the firey plume of a NASA rocket with this GIF","url":"https://time.com/4448683/new-camera-reveals-previously-unseen-details-in-nasas-rocket-booster/","keywords":["Space","NASA","Science topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68fab49507afe08a/6988a20d8e0601325f4671da/rocket-booster-test1.gif?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Marisa Gertz","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/marisa-gertz/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68fab49507afe08a/6988a20d8e0601325f4671da/rocket-booster-test1.gif?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"rocket-booster-test","caption":"Orbital ATK’s QM-2 solid rocket booster test, as recorded by a traditional video camera (top) and by NASA’s High Dynamic Range Stereo X (HiDyRS-X) camera (bottom).","creditText":"NASA; Gif by Marisa Gertz for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4448683/new-camera-reveals-previously-unseen-details-in-nasas-rocket-booster/","name":"New Camera Reveals Previously Unseen Details In NASA's Rocket Booster"}}]}] ```