A brand new video from humanity’s largest orbital laboratory is an efficient reminder of why spaceflight continues to captivate us.
In this one-minute clip posted to X from the International Space Station (ISS) social media account, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Freedom could be seen docked in opposition to the backdrop of the Milky Way. The arm of our galaxy that is seen to us then step by step fades as the daylight mirrored off the spacecraft brightens to a blinding white.
The ISS travels in low-Earth orbit (LEO) at an altitude of about 260 miles (420 kilometers) and a median velocity of 17,150 miles per hour (27,600 kilometers per hour). It completes an orbit across the planet as soon as each 90 minutes. Pertaining to the transition between Earth’s mild and darkish sides, astronauts aboard the house station expertise 16 sunrises and sunsets daily — so, if astronauts aboard the station do not occur to be close to a window to catch the view, they by no means have lengthy to attend earlier than it comes again round once more.
Crew Dragon Freedom arrived to the ISS on Sep. 29, after launching aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The spacecraft carried two members of SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission: NASA astronaut Nick Hague, Crew-9 commander, and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
Normally, a crewed SpaceX mission to the ISS consists of 4 crewmembers, however two crewmembers of the Crew-9 rotation had been already aboard the house station. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams had been added to the Crew-9 manifest after their authentic experience to the house station, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, returned to Earth with out them.
Problems with Starliner’s thrusters when it arrived to the ISS in June compelled NASA to search out one other manner dwelling for Wilmore and Williams. As a consequence, the company eliminated NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson from the Crew-9 manifest so as to make room for Wilmore and Williams aboard the Dragon capsule designated for the mission; the spacecraft can be returning to Earth in February.
In the meantime, Freedom is docked to the zenith port of the house station’s Harmony module. The spacecraft was just lately relocated from the module’s ahead port, permitting astronauts to look down on the capsule and not using a backdrop of the Earth. Instead, whereas in planet’s shadow, the celebrities behind Dragon mild as much as reveal the Milky Way within the distance.
“When the celebrities and Dragon align. The Milky Way seems within the vastness of house behind the docked @SpaceX #Dragon crew spacecraft because the house station soars into an orbital dawn,” the house station’s X submit says.
When the celebrities and Dragon align. 🌟🐉 The Milky Way seems within the vastness of house behind the docked @SpaceX #Dragon crew spacecraft because the house station soars into an orbital dawn. pic.twitter.com/mlbsoV5NJsDecember 4, 2024
