Science

Reddit's Photoshops of the Soyuz ISS Launch Are Brilliant

On Thursday afternoon, three astronauts including the oldest woman to go to space blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a mission to the International Space Station. NASA’s top photographer Bill Ingalls took a long exposure shot of the launch and posted it to the agency’s official Instagram page. And then the internet took over. Ingall’s image ended up at the top of Reddit’s /r/photoshopbattles

Rocket launch photography is a huge, awesome hobby for a lot of amateur space enthusiasts. Ingall, of course, does it for a living, but others like 16-year-old John Kraus do it for fun. And then, if they’re lucky, people photoshop the shit out of their pictures into some truly hilarious designs. Ingall’s shot was a great jumping off point for a photoshop battle, because it’s pretty spectacular in its own right. The long exposure makes the rocket’s burners look like a gigantic beam of molten light rocketing into the sky.

That's a lot of fire.

Bill Ingalls/ NASA

But here’s what Reddit did to it. Brace yourself, it’s pretty ridiculous.

Save the cows!

Reddit/ InsideDK

We’ll start off pretty standard, with /u/InsideDK’s flawless photoshop of a flying saucer.

Topical and relevant.

Reddit/ FoxQT

FoxQT took that and made a reference to the latest South Park episode.

Looks delicious.

Reddit/ aphaits

Yep, and then aphaits went ahead and made the whole thing into a churro.

Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa *continues for 3 episodes*

Reddit/ KulpDontCare

And of course, a giant beam of light wouldn’t be complete without multiple instances of Goku from Dragon Ball Z going Super-Saiyan in it. KulpDontCare’s version is the best, in our opinion, but you can check out those and many, many more ridiculous photoshops of the launch right here.

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