Pictures from space! Our image of the day

Pictures from space! Our image of the day

SpaceX makes history


Monday, June 1, 2020: A false-color, infrared exposure shows SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and first Crew Dragon spacecraft with astronauts on board lifting off from NASA's historic Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The historic launch on Saturday (May 30) was the first commercial flight to orbit and the first time NASA astronauts launched from the United States in nearly a  decade. NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley safely arrived at the International  Space Station Sunday morning. — Hanneke Weitering  
 

Hubble eyes a star cluster with a dustless heart


Friday, May 29, 2020: The massive star cluster Westerlund 2, seen here in a new image from the Hubble Space Telescope, is filled with young stars surrounded by dense clouds of interstellar dust that's in the process of forming baby planets. But the stars in the center of the cluster don't have the same planet-building supplies as their neighbors near the cluster's outskirts, Hubble observations have revealed. The absence of dust in the center of Westerlund 2 is caused by "blistering ultraviolet radiation and hurricane-like stellar winds" coming from the biggest and brightest stars of the cluster, which congregate in the cluster's core, eroding and blasting away all the dust, Hubble officials said in a statement. — Hanneke Weitering

Crew Dragon at sunset


Wednesday, May 27, 2020: The sun sets behind a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the last time before the rocket's planned launch of two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. The Falcon 9 rocket, topped with SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft, is set to launch the Demo-2 mission from this historic launch pad today at 4:33 p.m. EDT (2033 GMT), weather permitting. On board will be Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, who will become the first NASA astronauts to travel to the International Space Station in a commercial spacecraft. SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted this photo on Tuesday night (May 26). — Hanneke Weitering
 

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