Minotaur Dawn
影像版權與與提供: Geoff Chester
Explanation:
Some colorful dawn skies along the US east coast featured the Moon and a Minotaur rocket climbing into low Earth orbit. The 7AM launch of the four stage Air Force Minotaur I rocket took place at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's eastern shore. Looking east, the rocket is visible beyond the top of the twisting exhaust plume in this wide angle view, with the waning crescent Moon at the upper right. The snapshot was taken from Alexandria, Virginia, some 100 miles northwest of Wallops Island. Orbital launches from Wallops have so far been relatively rare, the last two taking place in 1995 and 1985. As a result, many early morning risers reported the unusual spectacle. The rocket's payload was the Air Force Research Laboratory's TacSat-2 satellite and NASA's GeneSat-1 microsatellite.
說明:
美國東岸絢麗的早晨天空中，有一柳殘月和向低地球軌道爬昇的牛頭人火前 (Minotaur rocket)。這座在早上七點發射的四節式美國空軍牛頭人一型火箭，發射地點是位在維吉尼亞州東岸的美國太空總署Wallops飛航基地。在往東望的這張廣角影像裡，火箭在彎折煙痕頂端附近，而殘月則位在影像的右上角。這張照片拍攝地點在維吉尼亞州的Alexandria，大約在Wallops島西北方160公里之處。到目前為止，從Wallops基地發射的軌道任務相對少見，前二次分別在1985年和1995年。也因此，許多早起的人們驚奇於這種少見的景觀而紛紛投書。這次火箭發射的酬載，分別是美國空軍實驗室的TacSat-2衛星和美國太空總署的GeneSat-1微衛星。
資料來源: Scientific American
Department of Physics, NCKU
