Planetary Video

A (Crew) Dragon Chasing the Space Station, as Seen from Earth

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Planetary Society member Justin Foley captured this stunning view of the International Space Station being chased by the SpaceX Crew Dragon in the early morning hours of 31 May 2020. Here's Justin describing the moment:

"This video was taken with my Sony A7sii on a tripod, zoomed to around 50mm, F/4, ISO 32000, and exposure 1/4". Since the exposure was so long I sped up the video 4x to bring it to 16 fps to smooth the motion. Around the time I pointed my laser at the Dragon so my friends could find it easier, it actually glinted the sun a bit, and got much brighter. I had originally planned to travel to Florida to watch the launch in person, but due to the pandemic reluctantly cancelled the trip last minute, so this made up for the disappointment. My group consisted of several fellow JPL engineers and close friends, one of which previously worked on Crew Dragon at SpaceX which made the experience that much more personal for all of us."

You can see more of Justin Foley's astrophotography on his Instagram channel.