Love for rockets leads to stardom

In love with rockets

From then on, Luo followed every piece of spaceflight news he could find. He studied NASA images, compared them with the ones he took in Wenchang, and refined his techniques.

His next chance came quickly. A few months later, Wenchang prepared to launch a Long March 5B, one of China's most powerful rockets. Luo booked the same hotel room. This time, he was more confident and determined to capture the enormity of the liftoff from the privacy of his balcony.

The results were striking. When Luo shared the images, friends raved about how "cool" the rocket looked. But Luo had already begun thinking beyond close-ups.

He wanted to make the experience more personal. What if the photographs didn't just show the rocket, but the couple themselves, sharing the moment? "I wanted to produce better photos (of rockets) and also put the soaring rocket, my wife and myself into one picture," he said.

In July 2020, opportunity struck again. China was about to launch a Long March 5 carrying Tianwen 1, its first independent Martian mission. Luo staged something different: he positioned a camera on the beach, configured another inside the hotel room with a remote trigger, and stood with Li facing the rocket.

When ignition started, the images captured them gazing skyward as flames tore into the heavens.

"I had never seen selfies of couples with rockets before," Luo said. "Everyone focused on close-ups. We decided to do something new."