The Subaru Telescope recorded a film of the "flying whirlpool" on April 17, near Mauna Kea, only hours after a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket officially deployed a spy satellite into orbit.
According to accounts, the dying SpaceX rocket stage created an unusual and breathtaking "night spiral" above Hawaii ahead of the Crew-4 mission.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Inspiration4 crew launches from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on September 15, 2021.
About Subaru Telescope
The Subaru Telescope is an 8.2-meter optical-infrared telescope maintained by Japan's National Astronomical Observatory and located in Hawaii. The facility is located at a height of 13,579 feet (4,139 meters).
According to the facility website, most of Subaru's personnel work remotely due to operating in such a thin environment, with just a few remaining on-site to use the telescope.
The Subaru-Asahi Sky Camera captured the film. Subaru announced in a news statement that the project began in 2021 to webcast the night sky.
Subaru Telescope Captures
Marco Langbroek told SpaceWeather.com (via Science Alert) that Subaru Telescope recorded the typical spiral created by the post-deorbit-burn fuel vent of the Falcon 9 upper stage, which was deorbited over the Pacific Ocean immediately after the conclusion of the 1st rotation.
Langbroek follows SpaceX launches regularly and has captured spectacular images of the deployment of Starlink satellites, which provide broadband services to rural places.
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According to SpaceX footage shared on Twitter, the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket is reusable, and it landed successfully on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean. The top stage of the Falcon 9 is not reusable, and after delivering the spacecraft to its allotted orbit, it burned up naturally in the atmosphere.
SpaceX To Bring SpaceX's Crew-4 To ISS Via Falcon 9 Rocket
Meanwhile, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule - which will carry the company's Crew-4 manned mission - have arrived at the launch pad.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 with Dragon Freedom on top will be blasted into space at 17,500 mph before being detached, letting the mission proceed to its docking with the International Space Station.
NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, Jessica Watkins, and Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency will be sent to the International Space Station for a long-duration stay.
Space.com said the space capsule was fastened to the rocket's tip at a horizontal angle on April 17 before being hauled onto the launch pad on April 19 in preparation for takeoff.
On Saturday, April 23, the Crew-4 mission is set to launch at 5:26 a.m. EDT. Starting at 1:45 a.m. on Saturday, NASA's live TV station will transmit live coverage of the event.
A high-profile rollback will follow the Crew-4 deployment at KSC in a very short time. Next week, NASA expects to detach the Artemis 1 moon mission from Pad 39B and return it to KSC's massive Vehicle Assembly Building to address a few faults discovered during a "wet dress rehearsal" test.
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