File:Space Shuttle Atlantis in the sky on July 21, 2011, to its final landing.jpg

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Summary

Description
English: Like a comet streaking across the atmosphere, the Space Shuttle Atlantis left space for the final time on July 21, 2011, descending to a smooth landing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This astronaut photograph, taken from the vantage of the International Space Station (ISS), shows the streak of an ionized plasma plume created by the shuttle’s descent through the atmosphere.

At the time of the image, the ISS was positioned northwest of the Galapagos Islands, while Atlantis was roughly 2,200 kilometers (1,367 miles) to the northeast, off the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. The maximum angle of the shuttle’s descent was roughly 20 degrees, though it appears much steeper in the photo because of the oblique viewing angle from ISS. Parts of the space station are visible in the upper right corner of the image.

In the background of the image, airglow hovers over the limb of the Earth. Airglow occurs as atoms and molecules high in the atmosphere (above 80 kilometers, or 50 miles altitude) release energy at night after being excited by sunlight (particularly ultraviolet) during the day. Much of the green glow can be attributed to oxygen molecules.
Date
Source http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=51486 (direct link)
Author NASA/ISS Expedition 28
Other versions
File:STS-135 Space Shuttle Atlantis reentry seen from the ISS.jpg
Unmodified version
This image or video was catalogued by Johnson Space Center of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Photo ID: ISS028-E-018218.

This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing.
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Licensing

Public domain
This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was created by the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, of the NASA Johnson Space Center. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (NASA media use guidelines or Conditions of Use of Astronaut Photographs). Photo source: ISS028-E-18218.

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Captions

A plasma trail

Items portrayed in this file

depicts

inception

21 July 2011

File history

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Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current01:11, 30 July 2011Thumbnail for version as of 01:11, 30 July 20114,256 × 2,832 (2.2 MB)MattisseLarger size photo
15:49, 28 July 2011Thumbnail for version as of 15:49, 28 July 2011720 × 480 (205 KB)Mattisse
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