Explanation:
Nineteenth century science fiction author
Jules Verne
wrote visionary works about
Extraordinary
Voyages including tales of space flight and the story of a journey
From the Earthto the Moon.
Fittingly, the European Space Agency's newly developed
Automated Transfer Vehicle
(ATV), a robotic spacecraft
intended to deliver cargo to the International Space Station
(ISS)
was named in his honor and successfully docked
with the ISS earlier this year.
When the
Jules Verne ATV
was undocked and deorbited last month,
its safely controlled reentry over the Pacific Ocean
was followed by astronomers in order to make detailed comparisons
of the actual event with computer models of spacecraft
reentry and breakup in the atmosphere.
This dramatic
image of the fragmenting,
13-ton spacecraft is a high definition video frame recorded from
NASA's DC-8 Airborne Laboratory.
The observations were part of the joint ESA/NASA
Jules Verne Multi-Instrument
Aircraft Campaign.
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