APOD: 2020 September 5 – A Falcon 9 Moon
Discover the cosmos!
Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is
featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2020 September 5
Explanation:
Illuminating planet Earth’s night, full moons can have many names.
This year the last full moon of northern hemisphere summer was on
September 2, known to some as the
Full Corn Moon.
A few days earlier on August 30 this almost full moon rose just before sunset
though, shining through cloudy skies over
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Florida’s
Space Coast.
A well-timed snapshot
caught the glare
of rocket engines firing
below the lunar disk,
a Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage successfully
returning to Cape Canaveral’s landing zone 1.
About 9 minutes earlier, the same SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket
had launched
the SAOCOM 1B satellite toward polar orbit.
The fourth launch for this reusable Falcon 9 first stage, it
was the first launch to a
polar orbit
from Cape Canaveral since 1969.
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