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The space news was recently highlighted by a master stroke from the American company SpaceX: the first demonstration mission of the habitable Crew Dragon spacecraft was a success. From its launch to its splash down and its docking to the International Space Station, everything happened on time and on business.
Why does this mission arouses the enthusiasm of NASA? Because the private-owned capsule could give back american astronauts their independence as far as travelling to the space station is concerned. 8 years after the final decommissioning of the fabulous Space Shuttle (STS), the only remaining way of transportation to the International Space Station is the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
Launched on March 2, 2019, the SpaceX capsule was unmanned and effectively docked to the ISS the day after.
★ Observing the Space Station from the Earth : a truth
Although the ISS is orbiting our planet at an altitude of 400 km, its gigantic area of solar panels enables reflecting the sunlight towards ground-based observers. It is then possible for anyone on Earth to observe the station passing by, to the naked eye.
By using a high-magnification telescope, it becomes conceivable to recognize parts of the ISS's structure itself: its solar panels, radiators, habitable modules or even vessels docked to this soccer-field sized satellite...
★ Stunning pictures of Crew Dragon as seen from the Earth
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| Annotated picture of the Space Station with its 2 docked spacecraft. Picture taken from the ground by Nagy Szabolcs |
Indeed, this is the incredible challenge Nagy Szabolcs has taken up. Based in Britain, this ISS-photographer specialist was lucky enough to capture the Crew Dragon spacecraft twice, while it was still attached to the ISS on March 5 and March 7 2019. Plus, another vessel was docked at the same time: the Russian Progress MS-10 supply vehicle. Reaching such an amount of details from the ground is a noticeable achievement: not only a suitable weather should be expected for capturing the ISS but also a long preparation, checking and training phases should be required!
Nagy actually recorded a full video of the sighting using a high-speed CCD camera at prime focus of its 10" dobsonian telescope. To catch up with this 27 000 km/h-orbiting satellite, Nagy just moved his telescope by hand, without any help of automated tracking system. He explains everything on his website: www.spacestationguys.com/the-spacex-crew-dragon-project
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| Video of the ISS showing the SpaceX Crew Dragon module and its colleague the Russian Progress spacecraft. Credit: Nagy Szabolcs |
To add more complexity in this challenge, the amateur astronomer only had a short shooting opportunity since the SpaceX 's capsule detached from the station on March 8 2019. We thought this well done job deserved to be under the spotlight. Congratulations to you Nagy!
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