ISS and Astronaut
Credit & Copyright:
Ralf
Vandebergh
These two frames, taken with a video camera and a telescope, reveal
remarkable details of the
International Space Station (ISS) orbiting
some 350 kilometers
above planet Earth.
Recorded during last month's visit by the crew of shuttle orbiter
Discovery on
mission STS-119, the pictures show extended
solar arrays glinting in bright sunlight against a dark sky.
They also likely capture the blurred image of a spacewalking astronaut
during the mission's EVA-2
(Extravehicular
Activity-2)!
The astronaut is installing equipment
along one of the station's truss assemblies.
Astronomer Ralf Vandebergh, who often images the ISS during its favorable
passes through
Dutch skies, comments that no other bright ISS structures
occupy the position indicated in the inset, and that
a reflective,
white-suited astronaut would be visible against the
truss and correspond to the bright blur.
Vandebergh notes that the timing and location further suggest
the spacewalker is
STS-119 astronaut Joseph Acaba.