Love for rockets leads to stardom

Public displays of affection, or PDA for short, can raise smiles or eyebrows in China. But for 37-year-old Luo Hongyang, PDA has become the launchpad of both his career and fame. Jokingly called the "King of PDA" by his friends, Luo doesn't just share romantic snapshots with his wife Li Ying on social media, but frames them against splendid backdrops of rockets soaring into the sky.

That unusual pairing of love and liftoffs has propelled Luo into the spotlight. Space buffs adore him, the media celebrates him and space program officials have even reposted his shots. His photographs aren't just tender moments, but fiery testaments to how passion, timing and a keen eye can take your work into a whole new orbit.

Luo fell in love with photography in 2009, when his mother gifted him a camera. He used it extensively to take pictures of his girlfriend Li, then later turned it into a livelihood when he quit his internet job in 2019 to open a portrait studio in his hometown Nanning, the capital of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

The venture proved profitable, allowing him to open a second studio. By then, Luo's interests had expanded to include astrophotography. Nights spent shooting star-streaked skies and distant galaxies honed his skills. Some of his photographs were picked up by Chinese photography and astronomy magazines. "At that time I didn't know much about rockets, satellites or our space programs," Luo recalled. His limited knowledge about spaceflight came from media reports and rockets were not on his radar.

An extraordinary idea

Then came a cosmic twist. Lou's world would change in March 2020, when a friend called to offer an extraordinary proposition. He had booked a hotel room in Wenchang, Hainan province, to watch a rocket launch at the Wenchang Space Launch Center but was unable to travel due to restrictions following the outbreak of COVID-19. He asked Luo if he would like to use the room instead.

Luo, who was visiting his wife's parents in nearby Sanya at the time, seized the opportunity. "I thought, 'Why not? I've never seen a rocket in real life. It sounds interesting.'" Determined to make the most of this chance, Luo reached out to photography friends with experience in shooting rocket launches. One of them, Zhang Jingyi, invited him to an online chat group where enthusiasts traded tips about rocket photography. Luo absorbed everything he could. "I learned a lot from the online session," he said.

Luo drove three hours with Li and her younger brother and reached the Gloria Longda Hotel near the Wenchang Space Launch Center two days before the scheduled launch on March 16, 2020.From the hotel balcony, they could see the towering Long March 7A rocket.

Professional photographers and mediapersons had already crowded the hotel rooftop. "The view from the hotel balcony was good enough, so I decided to take pictures from there," he recalled.

On the day of the launch, Lou could not contain his excitement. As dusk fell, Luo peered through his viewfinder, his heart racing. As the countdown ended and flames burst from the rocket's engines, he pressed the shutter relentlessly, the clicks blending with his wife's shrieks of excitement. "I had never cared about rockets," Li said. "But standing so close, watching the engines spit fire, I couldn't stop screaming."

Though the Long March 7A mission ended in failure due to technical malfunctions, Luo was unfazed.

He had captured a spectacle. "I took some nice pictures," he boasted, later posting them on WeChat and Weibo. That experience planted a seed of obsession.

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."

Love under a rocket's glow

Four months later, China prepared to launch the Chang'e 5 lunar mission. Scheduled before daybreak, it posed a creative challenge. Luo responded by crafting a transparent umbrella edged with tiny glowing bulbs, transforming a night shoot into a luminous tableau. "By that time, I had become a true space fan," Luo said. "I bought some spaceflight merchandise to try and make my pictures more interesting and unique."

In June 2021, the couple traveled to the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Inner Mongolia to witness the Shenzhou XII crewed mission. For the first time, Luo was photographing astronauts departing for China's new Tiangong space station.

The journey from Nanning took a full day, but Lou said the effort was worth it. "Seeing off our astronauts flying toward our own space station is an unforgettable memory," he said.

Since that first launch five years ago, Luo has photographed 37 rocket launches, which sent astronauts, deep-space probes, cargo ships and various kinds of satellites into orbit. His images, which feature him, his wife and their oldest son, have been shared widely online on social media. Media outlets have also used them extensively.

Family matters

Luo's enthusiasm for rockets has rubbed off on his family as well. "My oldest son is nearly 6 years old and has already seen 24 launches, including one from a ship. He is also a space fan and likes sharing what he knows about rockets and spaceflights with his friends and kindergarten teachers," said Luo. Luo intends to take him to the Xichang and Taiyuan launch centers once he's old enough to appreciate them.

Recognition has followed Luo's interest in rockets. He has been invited to participate in an official documentary about China's lunar program. A filmmaker friend has also produced a short documentary on Luo and his family's "rocket stories". What began as a hobby has become not just a career, but a launchpad for fame.

Luo's journey is a reminder of how chance encounters can change a life.

A hotel room, a balcony, a single rocket — and suddenly, a career trajectory shifts. What began as a pastime photographing his girlfriend became a livelihood. What began as curiosity about rockets became a creative identity celebrated nationwide.