The internet.
It gives us an instant connection to the some of human knowledge, but it also lets misinformation
travel at the speed of light.
Everyday I get comments about how people will believe we’ve been to space after I show
them evidence of actual spacecraft taken in space and not CGI mock-ups.
Challenge accepted.
Here come a whole bunch of photos of spacecraft taken in space.
Actually, I don’t really care if you believe it or not.
I was just so excited about some of the fantastic pictures of spacecraft - taken by spacecraft
- that I decided to dedicate a whole episode to it.
For starters, I’ve got to address the elephant in the room.
Why are there so many illustrations and computer graphic images of spacecraft and not real
photos of spacecraft?
Here’s the answer.
Spacecraft aren’t equipped with selfie sticks.
I mean, it would be cool to have the spacecraft take a picture of itself while Saturn photobombs
the background, but that weight is better used with additional fuel or scientific payload.
Scientists are completely unconcerned about having to prove anything to anyone, and they’d
prefer to maximize the science coming back from their spacecraft.
So, whenever you see an image of a spacecraft that’s out there in space, all alone, then
it’s going to be an artist’s illustration.
Here’s the Voyager spacecraft flying through space, except it’s a computer graphic, obviously.
Here’s the Pioneer passing Jupiter.
I mean, here’s a painting of Pioneer and Jupiter, because there’s no way to actually
take a photograph of this moment.
NASA and the other space agencies will also create CGI renderings of spacecraft that don’t
exist yet, to give us an idea of what it might look like when it gets created.
Like the James Webb Space Telescope that hasn’t even been launched yet.
Here’s what it really looks like, getting worked on in the lab here on the ground before
its launch.
I provide you with plenty more examples.
But in general, if you see a “photograph” or video of a spacecraft, and you’re not
sure if it’s real or not, just ask yourself, who could have taken the picture.
Also, if the image looks too good and clean, then it’s probably computer graphics.
But the reason this is actually an episode is that the question got me thinking of some
really amazing pictures and videos I’ve come across in my years of space reporting.
Photographs of spacecraft taken by humans, or other spacecraft which are absolutely amazing
and worthy of wonder.
This gives me an incredible opportunity to show you some of the coolest pictures ever
taken, and I’m going to take it.
So here’s the deal.
For the rest of this episode, I’m only going to show you actual pictures of spacecraft,
taken from the ground or in space.
No artist renderings, paintings or computer graphics.
First up, let’s do some pictures from the Apollo missions.
One of the classic videos used over and over again is the Saturn V rocket tossing its 3rd
stage back as it continues its mission towards the Moon.
I like this, and it’s iconic, but check out this one.
This was during the launch of Apollo 3 on a Saturn 1B rocket.
You’re seeing the command module and upper stage detach from the second stage, captured
by a camera inside the stage.
The spacecraft flies out and then the stage tumbles towards Earth.
In the last moment, the camera is ejected out so that it can return to Earth and the
film to be recovered.
There it is, right…
there.
Imagine the engineering required to get this automated shot and retrieve the film.
All before digital cameras could beam their images back to Earth.
By 1975, the race to get humans to the Moon was over, but the Americans and Soviets were
still launching people into space.
To begin a new partnership, the two nations agreed to have their spacecraft dock with
one another in orbit.
Three astronauts and two cosmonauts piloted their spacecraft together, and docked in space
for 44 hours.
Both the Apollo capsule and Soyuz were equipped with cameras that captured the docking procedure.
Then they detached and returned to Earth.
Actually, there was a pretty scary mishap for the Americans during their re-entry where
a valve was accidentally left open and toxic fumes came into the cabin.
There are plenty more examples during the Gemini and Apollo missions.
Docking spacecraft together was one of the great accomplishments of this era, and there
are many amazing examples.
But I think I like this, during the first US spacewalk, where astronaut Ed White is
floating at the end of an 8-metre tether above the Earth.
It must have been terrifying and exhilarating.
The photo was captured by his crewmate, James McDivitt.
Astronaut Bruce McCandless passed away last week.
He was a mission specialist of two flights of the space shuttle.
But he was the first person to fly untethered out in space using NASA’s Manned Maneuvering
Unit.
It’s an iconic photograph and an incredible accomplishment.
Back when the space shuttle was flying, I always loved to see the high resolution images
captured as it was approaching the International Space Station.
There was a very practical reason for these photographs, the Columbia Disaster.
In 2003, the space shuttle Columbia was destroyed as it was re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere.
A chunk of foam from its external fuel tank dislodged during the launch, impacted the
shuttle’s wing and tore out a chunk of its protective heat tiles.
During re-entry, hot gases made their way into the shuttle and the spacecraft was lost,
including all 7 astronauts on board.
NASA vowed to never let that happen again, so they did an incredibly detailed scan of
the shuttle after launch to make sure there weren’t any damaged tiles.
The shuttles would extend their Canadarm with a specially built camera system and scan the
tiles with incredible detail.
The astronauts on board the ISS would also visually observe the shuttle as it was approaching
the station.
As the shuttle departed, they would take some final pictures of the International Space
Station floating high above the Earth.
Here’s an image that you might not have seen, though.
Here’s the space shuttle Atlantis after it had undocked from the station, and it was
re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere.
In fact, when the shuttles were landing in Florida, people in Texas would see the shuttle
pass overhead and hear the twin sonic booms.
I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of launch videos, from the Apollo era to the space shuttle
as well as commercial and military launches.
We now see high quality images and videos of launching and landing rockets, thanks to
SpaceX.
In fact, during all SpaceX launches now, they provide continuous coverage of the launch,
from liftoff.
The footage splits so you can watch the first stage return to Earth and land on the ground
or a floating barge in the ocean.
The second stage continues to space, carrying its cargo into orbit.
It’s hypnotic, and I try to watch every one.
The most powerful telescope ever sent to another world is on board NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter.
In general, it’s used to take incredibly detailed images of the surface of Mars, down
to a resolution of a meter across.
But occasionally it’s been called in to take images of other spacecraft.
Here’s a photo it took of NASA’s Curiosity Rover as it was landing back in 2012.
You can actually see the parachute deployed and the landing system suspended down below.
Amazing.
It’s also photographed Curiosity hard at work on the Martian surface, as well as the
Spirit and Opportunity Rovers, the Viking landers.
Perhaps its greatest detective work was to find the missing Beagle 2 lander, lost in
since it crashed in 2003.
When the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft began its mission at Comet 67P,
it detached the smaller Philae spacecraft to try and land safely on the surface of the
comet.
Unfortunately, the extremely low gravity messed up its landing, causing it to bounce unpredictably.
For the longest time, nobody knew where the lander went.
Finally, some detective work turned up Philae, turned over on its side on the surface of
the comet, seen by the orbiting Rosetta spacecraft.
Oh, I said that spacecraft aren’t equipped with selfie sticks, but Rosetta did catch
this cool image of itself approaching the comet.
Here’s a picture of NASA’s Curiosity Rover on the surface of Mars, but how did it take
the picture?
It actually does have a selfie stick, kind of.
Curiosity is equipped with a robotic arm and an instrument called the Mars Hand Lens Imager.
The rover can move the arm around its entire chassis, taking dozens of pictures which are
then assembled together on computer to create this composite.
This arm allows Curiosity to take close up pictures of interesting rocks and terrain,
and operators back on Earth to keep track of the damage to the rover’s wheels.
All of the spacecraft on the surface of the Moon have been photographed from space too.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is at the Moon, helping scientists study the lunar
surface.
They’re mostly interested in craters, lava tubes, and fields of rock, dust and ancient
lava flows, but they took a few images of some Apollo hardware as well.
They’ve got pictures of all the Apollo landing sites, where you can make out the landers
and other hardware, and even the footstep paths taken by the astronauts as they wandered
across the lunar surface.
But probably the best one is Apollo 15, when they had the Lunar Roving Vehicle, and drove
around the surface of the Moon.
You can see the tire tracks from their exploration.
In a previous episode, we talked about how spacecraft die.
Most of the time this happens at a random spot on Earth, but if you get the calculations
right, you can take pictures of the moment it’s happening.
The European Space Agency’s Jules Verne automated transfer vehicle re-entered the
Earth’s atmosphere in 2008.
ESA operators knew exactly where it was going to crash back through the Earth’s atmosphere,
and they were able to take this stunning video of the spacecraft burning up.
We’ve talked about spacecraft and astronauts taking pictures of other stuff in space.
But now I wanted to tell you how you can take pictures of spacecraft all on your own, from
down here on Earth.
And we’ll get to that in a second, but first I’d like to thank:
Val Parks David Gines
Jeff Wilkie
And the rest of our 785 patrons for their generous support.
If you love what we’re doing and want to get in on the action, head over to patreon.com/universetoday.
You, yes you can see spacecraft with your own eyeballs.
You can see the International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope and and various
objects in low Earth orbit.
The best way to do this is to go to a website like Heavens Above.
It’ll show you the current location of all the satellites orbiting Earth and calculate
when a specific one is going to be flying over your location.
For example, the International Space Station.
At the appointed time, head outside and watch the space station pass overhead.
If you use a pair of binoculars, you can see the station’s solar panels making it look
at bit like a Tie Fighter.
And if you want to get really fancy, you can use a website called Transit Finder, that’ll
let you calculate when ISS is going to pass directly in front of the Moon from a location
near you.
It’s hard to track the space station with a telescope, but if you know where it’s
going to be, you can take pictures of the Moon instead, and get ISS passing in front.
One of my favorite photographers is Thierry Legault, who’s based in France and takes
this technique to the logical extreme, capturing images of ISS during eclipses, or seeing spacecraft
dock.
And here’s another amazing photographer, Szabolcs Nagy based in London who takes his
own amazing images of spacecraft.
So, if you’re looking for a new hobby and you want to take your astronomy to the next
level, try this.
What an amazing time to be alive.
To have so many spacecraft buzzing around the Solar System, with more on the way.
What are rare pictures now will be commonplace in the future, and I can’t wait to share
them with you.
Did I forget any awesome images of spacecraft taken in space?
Let me know in the comments and maybe I can do a part 2.
Do you want to know when we release a new episode.
Are you worried that YouTube is going to accidentally unsubscribe you?
I’ve created an email mailing list to announce new videos when we post them.
I’ll put a link to the mailing list in the shownotes below.
In our next episode we’ll talk about biosignatures.
What kinds of chemicals would we need to detect in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet
to know that there’s life there.
It’s a surprisingly tricky problem.
That’s next time.
And finally, here’s a playlist