APOD: The Space Station Captures a Dragon... (2014 Jun 02)

[APOD Robot]

The Space Station Captures a Dragon Capsule

Explanation: The space station has caught a dragon. Specifically, in mid-April, the International Space Station captured the unmanned SpaceX Dragon capsule sent to resupply the orbiting outpost. Pictured above, the station's Canadarm2 had just grabbed the commercial spaceship. The Dragon capsule was filled with over 5000 lbs (2260 kilos) of supplies and experiments to be used by the current band of six ISS astronauts who compose Expedition 39, as well as the six astronauts who compose Expedition 40. After docking with the ISS, the Dragon capsule was unloaded and eventually released, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on May 18. The current Expedition 40 crew, now complete, will apply themselves to many tasks including the deployment of the Napor-mini RSA experiment which will use phased array radar and a small optical telescope to monitor possible emergency situations on the Earth below.

<< Previous APOD

This Day in APOD

Next APOD >>

[/b]

[Nitpicker]

Great image. (I like it even more when I turn it upside down.) I wonder how the cost of this dragon compares with the ones in Game of Thrones?

[BDanielMayfield]

Does anyone know what land is visible in this image?

My guess would be North Africa.

[Beyond]

Perhaps Nitpicker gave you a clue?

[Nitpicker]

Perhaps Nitpicker gave you a clue?

No, the links lead me to believe it is over Egypt. But I haven't identified it for myself.

[LocalColor]

Hominid tool makers from the pale blue dot.

[neufer]

---

[geckzilla]

I spent half the day today trying to figure out where this picture was taken exactly and the facts are all straight with the article as well as the timestamp in the photo's meta data. At 07:14 (GMT) the Dragon was grappled. About seven minutes later at around 07:21, Steve Swanson took the photograph. It's in the Asian continent along the border of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan just southeast of the South Aral Sea. I think his camera time might be between 30 seconds to maybe a minute off, though. A minute or two matters a lot. What made this difficult was the fact that the South Aral Sea looks radically different in Google Earth's satellite imagery than it does in Steve's photograph.

[geckzilla]

Image hover...

Click to view full size image 1 or image 2

...

[/hide]

[neufer]

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/v ... ated_image

[geckzilla]

Besides the Aral Sea's temporal changes, the infrared satellite imagery also makes for quite a different view.

[Nitpicker]

Very impressive, geck.

[Mentor]

I was looking at the Aral Sea as a candidate for this image. For some reason it's been driving me crazy. Thanks for the confirmation. I learned some interesting information as a result of this google earth search: Russia had a biological warfair laboratory at this sight for many years, that was protected by the waters of the Aral Sea. That sea is evaporating, and some believe experimental diseases may escape the island where the lab was, because mamals can now traverse the lakebed.

[Keyman]

I was looking at the Aral Sea as a candidate for this image. For some reason it's been driving me crazy. Thanks for the confirmation. I learned some interesting information as a result of this google earth search: Russia had a biological warfair laboratory at this sight for many years, that was protected by the waters of the Aral Sea. That sea is evaporating, and some believe experimental diseases may escape the island where the lab was, because mammals can now traverse the lakebed.

Don't worry. The GRB from WR 104 will take care of 'cleansing the area'.