Explanation:
This year, NASA celebrated its
50th anniversary.
Inspired to make his own contribution,
astronomer Ralf Vandebergh set out to record images
of some historic spacecraft in Earth orbit --
captured with his own modest equipment and a hand-guided,
10-inch, Newtonian reflecting telescope.
One result is this intriguing composite effectively
spanning 48 years of space flight!
From a 1960 launch, on the left is the
TIROS 2
satellite, one of the first successful
weather satellites.
While this TIROS
(Television InfraRed Observation System) satellite
stopped functioning in 1961,
Vandebergh notes that if we could visit it now, we would
still find
video cameras and magnetic tape recorders.
On the right, of course, is the ISS
(International Space Station)
including its recent addition, the
Progress M-65 cargo vehicle,
launched to the ISS just last month.
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