The Expedition 26 crew member aboard the International Space Station who snapped this photograph of the Ariane 5 rocket, barely visible in the far background, just after lift off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, and the rest of the crew have a special interest in the occurrence. ESA’s second Automated Transfer Vehicle, Johannes Kepler, was just a short time earlier (21:50 GMT or 18:50 Kourou time on Feb. 16, 2011) launched toward its low orbit destination and eventual link-up with the ISS. The unmanned supply ship is planned to deliver critical supplies and reboost the space station during its almost four-month mission. The elbow of Canadarm2 is in the foreground.

Image credit: NASA

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spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-26/html/…

More about space station research:
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

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By: NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center