ULA to amateur launch photographers: Work for me but not for thee

The emails from United Launch Alliance started popping into the inboxes of photographers a few days after the Fourth of July holiday. Although that day is meant to celebrate freedom and the red glare of rockets, the communication threatened to strip both from some of the company’s most ardent devotees.

The message from the launch company announced the implementation of a new “annual agreement” between ULA and all people who place remote cameras at Space Launch Complex-41, the company’s active launch site at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Anyone interested in setting remotes for future launch dates had 11 days to review and sign the agreement.

The language was clear: Photographers were welcome to set up remote shots at ULA launches if they worked for the media or wanted to post their work on social media. However, photographers could not sell this work independently, including as prints for fellow enthusiasts or for use in annual calendars.

“ULA will periodically confirm editorial publication for media participating in remote camera placement,” the email stated. “If publication does not occur, or photos are sold outside of editorial purposes, privileges to place remote cameras may be revoked.”

To the photographers who spend many hours preparing their equipment, waiting to set up and remove cameras, and persevering through scrubs and more, it seemed like a harsh judgment.

And nobody knew why it happened.

No comment

United Launch Alliance has offered no public comment about the new policy. The company did not respond to questions from Ars Technica about the agreement. And the company’s chief executive, Tory Bruno, a frequent tweeter who regularly interacts with fans on the social media site X, has ignored dozens of questions about the policy change. Since the first questions were raised a few days ago, Bruno has not replied to anyone on X.

The photographers themselves felt blindsided by the decision.

“I cannot sit by while myself and my colleagues are actively being forbidden from trying to support ourselves to be able to do what we do,” said David Diebold, a photographer for Space Scout, on X. “Being forced to sign an agreement that is a net negative for all of the media is the last thing I’ll do. If this is the end of the line for covering ULA missions up close, then so be it.”

Other photographers shared similar sentiments privately, but they did not want to be seen publicly calling out ULA, the second-most important launch provider in the United States.

The new rules went into effect on Tuesday with the final launch of an Atlas V rocket for a national security mission. A ULA representative told participating photographers that the intent of the new rules was to prohibit the sale of images to any commercial entities, including prints to individuals, except for news publications.

There was no explanation given for why.

How did we get here?

For a long time, the rules for accessing the press site at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and setting up remote cameras for launches there and at the military launch pads were clear. You had to be working press or have a letter from a publication that you were on assignment. But a decade and a half ago, several things occurred that began to change this.

As the Space Shuttle program wound down, NASA sought to induce positive publicity by inviting social media participants to launches and other events. The events were initially called “Tweetups” at their inception in 2009, and later “NASA Socials.” The space agency provided access to non-media spaceflight enthusiasts, who then shared their experiences on Twitter and other social media outlets. The space agency further blurred the lines between traditional reporters and social media enthusiasts by inviting these participants to some news conferences.