A Falcon 9 Nebula
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Dennis Huff
Not the Hubble Space Telescope's
latest view of a distant galactic nebula,
this illuminated cloud of gas and dust dazzled
early morning spacecoast skygazers on August 29.
The snapshot was taken
at 3:17am from Space View Park in Titusville, Florida.
That's about 3 minutes after the
launch of a SpaceX
Falcon 9 rocket on the
CRS-23 mission
to resupply the International Space Station.
It captures drifting plumes and exhaust from the separated
first and second stage of the rocket rising through still dark skies.
The lower bright dot is the second stage continuing
on to low Earth orbit.
The upper one is the rocket's first stage performing a
boostback burn.
Of course the first stage booster returned to make the first
landing on the latest autonomous drone ship to arrive in the Atlantic,
A Short Fall of Gravitas.