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International Space Station Commander Mike Fossum captured this amazing view of the Progress M-10M cargo ship burning up in Earth’s atmosphere after it undocked from the space station on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. Via Twitter, astronaut Chris Hadfield — who is scheduled to command the ISS next year — said he received an email from Fossum about the picture, reminding him of a previous description Hadfield had given of what exactly is inside these departing cargo ships. It’s a video we’ve shared before, but it’s worth watching again.
Of course, the big news here is that the Progress M-10M was able to undock because of the successful launch of the Progress 45 vehicle last Friday, setting the stage for allowing the Soyuz crew ships to start flying again, lessening the probability that the ISS will have to go unmanned. Stay tuned for updates on the launch of the station’s next three residents, which is scheduled for Nov. 13, 2011.
Don’t forget that November 2 (tomorrow) is the 11th anniversary of the day the first resident crew docked with the ISS! It’s really an amazing scientific and diplomatic achievement. The ISS gives us a completely different view of and understanding of ourselves and the Earth. Of course, the video here gives extra insight we’d not heard in such detail before.
We’ll probably focus on astronomer Harlow Shapley tomorrow, since it’s his birthday. But here’s what we wrote last year at Lofty Ambitions about ISS, as we waited for Discovery to (not) launch last year: http://loftyambitions.wordpress.com/2010/11/02/november-2-countdown-to-the-cape…2-1…/. We include links for ISS viewing, and we have some other ISS-related posts, if you want to use the search tool.
Thank you for destroying shooting star experience for me. Now I’ll never get it out of my head.
Quite a graphic and detailed explanation of the dirty business of space. I’ll think of shooting stars in with a whole new perspective!