This next humdinger depicts Atlantis’s sister Space Shuttle Endeavour as it races into space on an International Space Station assembly mission in 2008. The spectacle was captured from the Florida waterfront by an amateur photographer, though he should consider himself something of a pro after taking this shot. More a pillar of smoke than a fiery arc, the glow amidst the encroaching darkness and almost tornado-like formation of the plume are nonetheless tremendously beautiful. You wonder whether the reason these photos are so striking is that the spacecraft themselves aren’t in them.
What a shot. Taken in 1998, this awesome image shows NASA’s Lunar Prospector spacecraft shooting into the sky above Cape Canaveral, riding an Athena II rocket. Destination is in sight. Captured in time exposure, the fiery launch tail forms an arch in the foreground, while the moon, near its first quarter phase, looks on, some 250,000 miles away. Prospector will cover the distance in about 5 days. Prepare for blast-off as we explore stunning photos of space launches and wonder what it all means from an environmental point of view. The Prospector mission carried an array of instruments to map the surface composition and other facets of the Earth’s only natural satellite. The results improved our understanding of the Moon’s origin, evolution and resources, yet we still managed to make our mark there in what some might see as a slightly bungling and absurd manner. From its orbital vantage point, just 63 miles above the Moon’s surface, Prospector was deliberately crashed into a crater near the lunar south pole in a failed attempt to detect the presence of water. Maybe it was worth a shot.
No comments:
Post a Comment