And the Photo of the Week is ... there are two

Mara Bellaby, Florida Today
·2 min read

Horseshoe crabs and rockets. Two things the Space Coast doesn't lack.

This week, I'm using my editor's prerogative and selecting not one, but two, photos of the week. Both photos were that good. I simply couldn't pick and, well, there has to be some advantage to being the editor!

We'll start with horseshoe crabs. Photographer Malcolm Denemark has been talking about the spawning of the crabs for weeks, and as soon as he mentioned it, I also got excited about the photo possibilities.

Malinda Sherman, Laurilee Thompson and Rochelle Hood, volunteers wit the Linked with Limulus, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission program, were counting the horseshoe crabs spawning Thursday morning on Gator Road Beach in Titusville.
Malinda Sherman, Laurilee Thompson and Rochelle Hood, volunteers wit the Linked with Limulus, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission program, were counting the horseshoe crabs spawning Thursday morning on Gator Road Beach in Titusville.

"I ran into Laurilee Thompson at the Thousand Island Festival in March and asked her to please contact me when the horsehoe crabs spawning happened again," Denemark said.

For those who don't know, Thompson is not only a huge advocate for the environment but she also owns Dixie Crossroads in Titusville. And in this case, she's involved in an effort to count horseshoe crabs.

"After almost daily emails and messages Laurilee sent the text on April 11th, "It's been two years since we've had a spawn like this, come on up,'" Denemark recalled.

He wasn't disappointed: the photos and video are great, and the story behind the spawning proved very popular online. It ran on the front page of Monday's newspaper.

Now for rockets. Photographer Craig Bailey is our space photographer, and every single launch, he finds a new awe-inspiring shot. But this photo from Thursday's Starlink launch — simply, wow. The moon, the rocket. It's a stunner.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket passes in front of the moon after liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FL Thursday, April 18, 2024. The rocket is carrying 23 Starlink satellites. Craig Bailey/FLORIDA TODAY via USA TODAY NETWORK
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket passes in front of the moon after liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FL Thursday, April 18, 2024. The rocket is carrying 23 Starlink satellites. Craig Bailey/FLORIDA TODAY via USA TODAY NETWORK

I asked Bailey how he did it. "I simply decided to shoot the launch from a different location and got lucky," he said, being characteristically modest. "These days there are programs out there to determine the rocket's position in relationship with other objects, but I didn't use them. Had I used those programs like others did, I may have been in a different location and blocked by clouds."

"That's why I said 'lucky,'" he added. "I'll take my 'little bit of luck,' say thank you to the man upstairs and run with it every time."

Contact Executive Editor Mara Bellaby at mbellaby@floridatoday.com. Thank you for supporting local journalism.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: SpaceX rocket crosses moon, thousands of horseshoe crabs | Photo of Week