Thomas Pesquet : So long DC1! ? After almost twenty years of service, instead of getting a medal , one of the Space Station’s oldest modules got a little trip through the atmosphere.
Check these pics: it’s not every day that you see a piece of the Station being taken away. We pitched the International Space Station 90 degrees, and so we flew belly first, to help out with the manoeuver.
Pyotr and myself tried to capture some photos and videos of this important moment in the Station’s history. Quite a strange feeling to see a part of your ship fly away in mid-air (so to speak – no atmosphere here duh). A couple of hours later and we had front row seat to the fireball that was going to be DC1’s last act. ?We clearly saw smaller pieces float away from the main fireworks, as the ship was being destructed by the heat of atmospheric friction. Quite the show!
Encore un dรฉpart de cargo, le Progress russe, mais avec une nouveautรฉ de taille : accrochรฉ au vรฉhicule, un petit bout de station est carrรฉment parti en mรชme temps, et ce n’est pas tous les jours que รงa arrive ! C’รฉtait le module DC1, qui nous a quittรฉ aprรจs vingt ans de bons et loyaux services. ? On a penchรฉ la Station de 90ยฐ pour faciliter l’opรฉration. Quelques heures aprรจs, on รฉtait aux premiรจres loges pour observer le finish en ☄️ (destruction du vรฉhicule en rentrant dans l’atmosphรจre, brรปlรฉ sous l’effet de la friction).
Credits: ESA/NASA-T. Pesquet larger image