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.

                                2020 June 13

                            SpaceX Demo-2 Launch
                       Image Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

   Explanation: Clouds are white but the sky is dark in this snapshot of
   Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. The dramatic daytime
   sky is partly due to the black and white photo captured with a digital
   camera at near-infrared wavelengths. Taken at 3:22 p.m. EDT Saturday
   May 30 the launch was pretty dramatic too as a Falcon 9 rocket lofted a
   Crew Dragon spacecrat towards low-Earth orbit. Astronauts Robert
   Behnken and Douglas Hurley were onboard, the first crew launched from a
   United States spaceport since the conclusion of the Space Shuttle
   Program in 2011. A few minutes after launch, the Falcon 9 first stage
   returned to land on Of Course I Still Love You (that's an autonomous
   spaceport drone ship ...) patiently waiting off the Florida coast. The
   two astronauts guided their craft to a successfull docking with the
   International Space Station's Harmony module at 10:16 a.m. EDT Sunday
   May 31.

                     Tomorrow's picture: the happy dance
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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