Posted on 04/24/2021 6:17:49 PM PDT by MtnClimber
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.
Today's image is a video at the link:
Did we learn nothing from Planet of the Apes?
Predawn launches are fascinating because when the rocket reaches a certain altitude, it hits sunlight while the ground is still in darkness, and you get a glowing exhaust plume. And if you’re a conspiracy theorist, you can use that to say the rocket exploded and NASA is growing new clones of the astronauts for their supposed return.
Wow, firing a big rocket engine in a high-vacuum environment creates quite a show.
The flame plume from the Saturn V first stage was more than half a mile long, once it really got moving.
Had to watch several times before I think I saw the 1st stage return just at the end, below the plume.
This is what it looked like from my front yard in NE Florida. [Not my video, but what I saw.]
Booster separation and booster burns start around 1:30. Each initial booster burn looks like a downward pulsing cone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3S_-_9-kA4&ab_channel=Dr.ScottJackson
It is interesting to see the pattern of the rocket motor exhaust, formed by the nozzle, when outside the atmosphere. The sun hitting it while still dark on the surface really lights it up. It is washed out by brighter light during the daytime. It has to be at just before sunrise where the observer is located. I am in Central FL right now, but did not see it.
We had a great view on our street. We watch Falcons go up day or night, but this was the best show of all.
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