Astronaut watches Russian space map module plunge from space in fiery death (footage)
(Image credit: ESA/NASA–T. Pesquet)
On Monday (July 26), astronauts acknowledged goodbye to a cornerstone of the International Home Procedure and captured beautiful footage of the compartment burning up in Earth’s atmosphere.
A Russian Progress cargo car towed the module, referred to as Pirs, far from the distance map and down thru Earth’s atmosphere to be clear the module burned up fully and prick the odds of any mighty chunks making it to Earth’s floor.
“Reasonably a uncommon feeling to ogle a component of your ship soar away in mid-air (so to talk — no atmosphere right here duh),” European Home Company astronaut Thomas Pesquet wrote in a statement shared with the footage on Monday.
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“We clearly noticed smaller objects movement far from the important fireworks, as the ship changed into being destructed by the warmth of atmospheric friction,” Pesquet added. “Reasonably the level to!”
Russia had launched its Pirs module in 2001; since then, the module, which served as a port to the distance map, hosted extra than 70 a form of capsules and supported Russian cosmonauts conducting extravehicular actions, or spacewalks.
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To invent room for Russia’s fresh science module, dubbed Nauka, which launched on July 21 and can attain on the map on Thursday (July 29), Pirs needed to head. Yesterday’s fiery retirement ceremony marks the first time a important component of the International Home Procedure has been discarded.
The linked Progress car, which had arrived on the distance map in February, managed Pirs’ re-entry to ensure that the module changed into destroyed as thoroughly as that which you can imagine.
Electronic mail Meghan Bartels at [email protected] or mutter her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Fb.
Meghan is a senior writer at Home.com and has extra than five years’ skills as a science journalist basically based in Sleek York City. She joined Home.com in July 2018, with outdated writing revealed in outlets together with Newsweek and Audubon. Meghan earned an MA in science journalism from Sleek York University and a BA in classics from Georgetown University, and in her free time she enjoys reading and visiting museums. Follow her on Twitter at @meghanbartels.
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