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 November 19

                        Crew-1 Mission Launch Streak
                     Image Credit & Copyright: Jen Scott

   Explanation: Leaving planet Earth for a moment, a SpaceX Falcon 9
   rocket arced into the early evening sky last Sunday at 7:27 pm EST.
   This 3 minute 20 second exposure traces the launch streak over Kennedy
   Space Center's Launch Complex 39A. The rocket carried four astronauts
   en route to the International Space Station on the first flight of a
   NASA-certified commercial human spacecraft system. Dubbed Resilience,
   the astronauts' Crew Dragon spacecraft successfully docked with the
   orbital outpost one day later, on Monday, November 16. At the
   conclusion of their six-month stay on the ISS, the Crew-1 astronauts
   will use their spacecraft return to Earth. Of course about 9 minutes
   after launch the Falcon 9 rocket's first stage returned to Earth,
   landing in the Atlantic Ocean on autonomous spaceport drone ship Just
   Read The Instructions.

                     Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
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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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