APOD: Rocket Launch as Seen from the ISS (2025 Jan 05)

[APOD Robot]

Rocket Launch as Seen from the International Space Station

Explanation: Have you ever seen a rocket launch -- from space? A close inspection of the featured time-lapse video will reveal a rocket rising to Earth orbit as seen from the International Space Station (ISS). The Russian Soyuz-FG rocket was launched in November 2018 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying a Progress MS-10 (also 71P) module to bring needed supplies to the ISS. Highlights in the 90-second video (condensing about 15-minutes) include city lights and clouds visible on the Earth on the lower left, blue and gold bands of atmospheric airglow running diagonally across the center, and distant stars on the upper right that set behind the Earth. A lower stage can be seen falling back to Earth as the robotic supply ship fires its thrusters and begins to close on the ISS, a space laboratory that celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2023. Astronauts who live aboard the Earth-orbiting ISS conduct, among more practical duties, numerous science experiments that expand human knowledge and enable future commercial industry in low Earth orbit.

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[Astronymus]

Is that a meteor at 1:15 something?

[Alietr]

I was wondering about the red flashes around 1:17.

[johnnydeep]

Is that a meteor at 1:15 something?

Most likely.

[johnnydeep]

I was wondering about the red flashes around 1:17.

Assuming this video was shot from within the ISS by an astronaut, it looks like reflections of flashing lights on the ISS itself?

[Dellok]

A beautiful, moving portrait of Earthlings struggling to space, albeit via an unsustainable method we might have time to replace.

[Alietr]

I was wondering about the red flashes around 1:17.

Assuming this video was shot from within the ISS by an astronaut, it looks like reflections of flashing lights on the ISS itself?

That's a possibility, but they are moving with the Earth; if they were a reflection of something on the ISS, they presumably would have moved along the Earth.

[johnnydeep]

I was wondering about the red flashes around 1:17.

Assuming this video was shot from within the ISS by an astronaut, it looks like reflections of flashing lights on the ISS itself?

That's a possibility, but they are moving with the Earth; if they were a reflection of something on the ISS, they presumably would have moved along the Earth.

Hmm, you're right. Which makes this more mysterious!

[Tekija]

Assuming this video was shot from within the ISS by an astronaut, it looks like reflections of flashing lights on the ISS itself?

That's a possibility, but they are moving with the Earth; if they were a reflection of something on the ISS, they presumably would have moved along the Earth.

Hmm, you're right. Which makes this more mysterious!

It has been suggested they were from large power lines then under construction around the city of Zalantun in Northwest China, possibly due to warning lights in the pylons. At least that seems to be the corresponding region.

https://space.stackexchange.com/questio ... e-iss-in-t

[johnnydeep]

That's a possibility, but they are moving with the Earth; if they were a reflection of something on the ISS, they presumably would have moved along the Earth.

Hmm, you're right. Which makes this more mysterious!

It has been suggested they were from large power lines then under construction around the city of Zalantun in Northwest China, possibly due to warning lights in the pylons. At least that seems to be the corresponding region.

https://space.stackexchange.com/questio ... e-iss-in-t

Sounds possible, but these lights seem HUGE and would have to be pretty strong to be seen from the ISS, no?

[Alietr]

Pretty tall pylons if they were warning the ISS away!

[Astronymus]

Hmm, you're right. Which makes this more mysterious!

It has been suggested they were from large power lines then under construction around the city of Zalantun in Northwest China, possibly due to warning lights in the pylons. At least that seems to be the corresponding region.

https://space.stackexchange.com/questio ... e-iss-in-t

Sounds possible, but these lights seem HUGE and would have to be pretty strong to be seen from the ISS, no?

Zalantun Genghis Khan Airport, being surrounded by those powerlines, may be the reason for this excessive illumination.