Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2021 April 24

                 Streak and Plume from SpaceX Crew-2 Launch
                   Video Credit & Copyright: Eric Holland

   Explanation: What's happening in the sky? The pre-dawn sky first seemed
   relatively serene yesterday morning over Indian Harbor Beach in
   Florida, USA. But then it lit up with a rocket launch. Just to the
   north, NASA's SpaceX Crew-2 Mission blasted into space aboard a
   powerful Falcon 9 rocket. The featured time-lapse video -- compressing
   12-minutes into 8-seconds -- shows the bright launch plume starting on
   the far left. The rocket rises into an increasingly thin atmosphere,
   causing its plume to spread out just as it is lit by the rising Sun. As
   the Crew-2 capsule disappears over the horizon, the landing plume of
   the returning first stage of the Falcon 9 descending toward the SpaceX
   barge in the Atlantic Ocean can be seen. Up in space, the Endeavour
   crew capsule is expected to dock with the International Space Station
   (ISS) this morning, delivering four astronauts. The Crew-2 astronauts
   join Expedition 65 to help conduct, among other tasks, drug tests using
   tissue chips -- small microfluidic chips that simulate human organs --
   that run rapidly in ISS's microgravity.

                        Tomorrow's picture: ant star
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
                NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
                             & Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.14-Linux